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RELIGIOUS ORDERS 
OF WOMEN 

IN THE UNITED STATES <" 



ACCOUNTS OF THEIR ORIGIN 

AND OF THEIR 

MOST IMPORTANT INSTITUTIONS 



Interwoven with Brief Histories of many Famous 
Convents, especially prepared (with illus- 
trations) from Authentic Sources 



AND COMPILED BY 



ELINOR TONG DEHEY 



FIRST EDITION 



W. B. GONKEY COMPANY 

HAMMOND, INDIANA 
CHICAGO - NEW YORK 



« 






\ 



Copyright 1913 

BY 

ELINOR TONG DEHET 
South Bend, Indiana 









/ 



As ( ' Enfant de Marie, ' ' I dedicate 
This little volume of historic lore, 
Of sweetest, noblest, purest lives a store, — 
To Mary, truly the immaculate 
Mother of God, and unto Heaven's gate 
Our faithful guide, our pleader strong before 
The Throne of Grace, forever as of yore 
The Queen of Saints, incomparably great. 

With her I link my earthly Mother dear, 
Best loved companion of my girlhood days, 
Whose ever watchful care from year to year, 
Hath guided me through all life 's devious ways. 
May this small tribute of my love 's full growth 
Not vex my Mothers twain, but please them both! 




mtbfl ©bstat 



ARTHUR BARRY O'NEILL, C. S. C, 

Censor Deputatus. 
Notre Dame, Indiana, May 1, 1913. 



ttmpttmatur 



►&H. J. ALERDING, 

Bishop of Fort Wayne. 

May 1,1913. 



FOREWORD 

Every century of the world's history attests the 
perfection of great works, the performance of 
great deeds and the accomplishment of epoch- 
making events. The records of the Twentieth 
century will mark no greater accomplishment 
than the perfection of one of the world's greatest 
institutions — Religious Orders of Women. 

For hundreds of years the monasteries and con- 
vents in Europe have been sending forth their 
laborers; whether to nurse the sick, to instruct 
the ignorant, to mother the orphan or to house the 
destitute and aged, — always regardless of race, 
sex and sect, — the work has been and is per- 
formed for the MASTER. 

In Europe, in Asia, in Africa, and in America, 
the woman — in the garb of one whose life is con- 
secrated to God's service — is loved and respected, 
the performance of her duty surpasses criticism, 
for — as the night the day — the labor of God's 
chosen one is the best that heart and mind and 
strength can make it. 

Nearly two centuries have passed since that Au- 
gust seventh of the year seventeen hundred and 
twenty-seven when, in response to an appeal from 
the Governor of New Orleans, a heroic band of 
Ursuline Nuns set forth from their convent-home 
in France, for the far off mission in the New 
World. It is impossible to imagine, at this distant 
day, the sufferings of those who "went down to 
the sea in ships" two hundred years ago ; the mod- 
ern mind cannot appreciate the perils of that six 
months' voyage of those nobly born women of 

7 



8 FOREWORD 

France! The Governor, his wife and the princi- 
pal people of the city did well to come forward to 
welcome those Sisters, whom they rightly appre- 
ciated as the best treasure the mother-country had 
ever sent them. 

With the advent of the Ursulines, the history of 
our United States records the beginning of its his- 
tory of Religious Orders of Women and the es- 
tablishment by them of the country's first educa- 
tional institution for young women, the first free 
school, and the first orphanage. Here also, in this 
vast region known as the Louisiana Purchase, the 
first efforts were made in child-saving work, and 
here was established — by the Sisters — the first 
hospital in the United States, and today the 
"good Sisters," ever at the helm, — as fresh of 
heart and buoyant of spirit as when they first 
crossed to American shores, — labor on as through 
these two hundred years. 

Following the Ursulines, other European sister- 
hoods have come to the United States; their insti- 
tutions throughout the country substantial and 
magnificent in fact and in spirit. But, as in all 
else, the United States had soon her own Religious 
Orders of Women. In Loretto, Kentucky, the first 
order was formed in 1812, the same year wit- 
nessed the origination of a second mother-founda- 
tion — and like the first — on Kentucky's fertile soil. 

We Americans should know more than we do 
of the noble sisterhoods, of their work and of 
their convent-homes. The Sisters of our local pa- 
rochial schools we may know, and the good nuns 
of our Alma Mater we know and love well, but 
what of the others? Have we, in our homes, in 
our school libraries, or is there in the circulation 
department or on the reference table of our pub- 



FOREWORD 9 

lie libraries aught to tell us of the work of thou- 
sands of our own noblest women? In the en- 
cyclopaedia — the mecca when all else fails — we 
may read of the Ursulines, the Sisters of Charity, 
of Mercy, and of others, but of so few of the 
many! In our church histories? Yes, but here, 
too, in necessarily brief statement or in volume 
too large for practical use. 

With the Religious Orders of Women in the 
United States numbering today nearly as many 
as the years since that memorable seventeen 
twenty-seven, it has been found almost impossible 
to cover the subject even as in this volume, now 
sent forth in the world of books, to tell of our Sis- 
ters, their monasteries, their convents, their 
schools, that we — in this superficial age — may 
know the Sisters by more than name, that we may 
know the homes, the novitiates wherein the teach- 
ers of our children are learning their lessons in re- 
ligious life and pedagogical work, wherein the 
nurses in our hospitals, day-nurseries, orphanages 
and other missions are preparing themselves for 
their life-work in the MASTER'S VINEYARD. 



CONTENTS 

Page 

Adorers of the Precious Blood, Sisters 291 

Ann, Sisters of St 244 

Assumption, Little Sisters of the 306 

Atonement, Sisters of the 333_ 

Benedictine Nuns 198 

Benedictine Sisters, French 332 

Benedictine Sisters of Mount Olive 258_ 

Blessed Sacrament, Sisters of Perpetual Adoration of the 245 

Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Negroes, Srs. of the. 298 

Blood, Sisters of the Most Precious J55 

Bon Seeours, Sisters of Notre Dame de 285 

Carmelite Nuns 28 

Casimir, Sisters of St ; 333 

Cenacle, Society of Our Lady of Retreat in the 313 

Charity, Sisters of 35 

Charity of the B. V. M., Sisters of 110 

Charity of Cincinnati, Sisters of 94 

Charity of Emmitsburg, Sisters of 44 

Charity of Greensburg, Sisters of 99 

Charity of the Incarnate Word, Sisters of 232 

Charity of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament, 

Sisters of 199 

Charity of Mt. St. Vincent, Sisters of 70 

Charity of Nazareth, Sisters of 58 

Charity of New Jersey, Sisters of 218 

Charity of St. Augustine, Sisters of 191 

Charity, Sisters of Christian 250 

Charity, Sisters of St. Francis of Penance and Christian 262 

Charity, Sisters of Providence of 270 

Clares, The Poor 271 

Daughters of the Cross and Passion 335 

Divine Providence, Sisters of 239" 

Divine Saviour, Sisters of the 317 

11 



12 CONTENTS 

Page 

Dominican Sisters of the Holy Name Cong, in Cal 191 

Dominican Sisters of Hunt's Point, New York 281 

Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Sienna 89 

Dominican Sisters of St. Mary's-of- the- Springs 102 

Dominican Sisters of St. Rose of Lima Cong 319 

Dominican Sisters of Third Order (Racine) 202 

Family, Sisters of the Holy (Colored Sisters) 134 

Francis (Clinton), Sisters of St 239 

Francis (Dubuque), Sisters of St 276 

Francis (Oldenburg), Sisters of St 196 

Francis (Graymoor), Sisters of the Third Order of St. . . 333 

Francis (Philadelphia), Sisters of the Third Order of St. 201 

Francis (Tiffin), Sisters of the Third Order of St 244 

Francis of Perpetual Adoration, Sisters of St 278 

Francis, Sisters of the Poor of St 209 

Francis of Penance and Christian Charity, Sisters of St . . 262 

Franciscan Sisters for Colored People 284 

Franciscan Sisters of Mt. Carmel 235 

Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration 182 

Franciscan School Sisters, Polish 329 

Ghost, Sisters of the Holy 331 

Good Shepherd, Sisters of the 144 

Handmaids of Jesus Christ, Poor 241 

Helpers of the Holy Souls 306 

Helpers of the Sacred Heart, Mission 295 

Holy Child Jesus, Sisters of the 226 

Holy Cross, Sisters of the 134 

Holy Family, Sisters of the (Colored Sisters) 134 

Holy Family of Nazareth, Sisters of the Most 287 

Holy Ghost, Sisters of the 331 

Holy Humility of Mary, Sisters of the 200 

Immaculate Heart of Mary, Sisters Servants of the 160 

Indians and Negroes, Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for 298 

Incurable Cancer, Servants of Relief for 319 

Jesus, Sisters of the Holy Child 226 

Joseph, Sisters of St 116 

Joseph of Brentwood, Sisters of St 120 

Joseph of Chestnut Hill, Sisters of St 179 

Joseph of La Grange, Sisters of St 324 



CONTENTS 13 



Joseph of Peace, Sisters of St 286 

Joseph, Religious Hospitaliers of St 318 

Kentucky, The Ursulines in 214 

Ladies of the Sacred Heart 75 

Ladies of the Sacred Heart of Mary 280 

Little Sisters of the Assumption 306 

Little Sisters of the Poor 243 

Loretto, Sisters of 50 

Mary, Ladies of the Sacred Heart of 280 

Mary, Servants of 316 

Mary, Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin 110 

Mary, Sisters of the Holy Humility of 200 

Mary, Sisters of Saint 232-245 

Mary, Sisters Servants of the Immaculate Heart of 160 

Mary, Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin . . 200 

Mary-of-the-Woods, Sisters of Providence of 128 

Mary's-of-the-Springs, Dominican Sisters of St 106 

Mercy, Sisters of 150 

Mission Helpers of the Sacred Heart 295 

Mt. Carmel, Franciscan Sisters of 235 

Mt. Olive, Benedictine Sisters of 258 

Namur, Sisters of Notre Dame of 120 

Nazareth, Sisters of Charity of 58 

Nazareth, Sisters of the Most Holy Family of 287 

New Jersey, Sisters of Charity of 218 

Notre Dame of Bon Secours, Sisters of 285 

Notre Dame of Cleveland, Sisters of 265 

Notre Dame of Namur, Sisters of 120 

Notre Dame, School Sisters of ^J36 

Oblate Sisters of Providence 102 

Passionist Nuns 335 

Peace, Sisters of St. Joseph of 286 

Perpetual Adoration, Franciscan Sisters of 278 

Perpetual Adoration, Sisters of the Third Order of St. 

Francis of the 182 

Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, Sisters 

of the 245 

Poor Clares, The 271 

Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ, The 241 



14 CONTENTS 

Page 

Poor, Little Sisters of the 243 

Poor of St. Francis, Sisters of the 200 

Polish Franciscan School Sisters 329 

Precious Blood, Sisters of the Most 155 

Precious Blood, Sisters Adorers of the Most 291 

Presentation of the B. V. M., Sisters of the 200 

Providence, Sisters of Divine 239 

Providence, Oblate Sisters of 102 

Providence of Charity, Sisters of 270 

Providence of St. Mary-of-the-Woods, Sisters of 128 

Religious Hospitaliers of St. Joseph 318 

Religious of the Sacred Heart 75 

Retreat in the Cenacle, Society of Our Lady of 313 

Sacrament, Sisters of Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed 245 
Sacrament, Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis of 

Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed 182 

Sacrament, Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration of 

the Blessed 278 

Sacred Heart, Mission Helpers of the 295 

Sacred Heart, Religious of the 75 

Sacred Heart of Mary, Ladies of the 280 

Saint Ann, Sisters of 244 

Saint Augustine, Sisters of Charity of 191 

Saint Casimir, Sisters of 333 

Saint Francis, Sisters of . . . , 196-239-244-276-333 

Saint Francis, Sisters of the Third Order of 201 

Saint Francis of Penance and Christian Charity, Srs. of 262 

Saint Francis, Sisters of the Poor of 209 

Saint Francis of Perpetual Adoration, Sisters of Third 

Order of 182 

Saint Joseph, Sisters of 116-179-324 

Saint Joseph of Peace, Sisters of 286 

Saint Mary, Sisters of 232-245 

Saint Ursula of the B. V. M., Sisters of 330 

Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Sisters 160 

Servants of Mary, Sisters 316 

Servants of Relief for Incurable Cancer 319 

Shepherd, Sisters of the Good 144 

Ursulines, The 21 



CONTENTS 15 

Page 

Ursulines in Kentucky, The 21-4 

Ursulines in Montana, The .' 25 

Ursulines in New Orleans, The 23 

Ursula of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Sisters of St 330 

Visitation Nuns 65 

Word, Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate 232 

Word and Blessed Sacrament, Sisters of Charity of the 

Incarnate , 199 



APPENDIX 

Mother-houses and Novitiates in the United States for 

Religious Orders of Women in the Catholic Church . . 343 

Chronological Index of Religious Orders of Women, ar- 
ranged according to their establishment in the United 
States 364 



PORTRAIT ILLUSTRATIONS 

The Ursulines (on their first Indian Mission) 

opposite page 26 '• 

A Sister of Charity (Emmitsburg) opposite page 48 

A Sister of Loretto opposite page 52 v 

Mother Catharine Spalding (Sisters of Charity of 

Nazareth) opposite page 62 

Mother Seton . opposite page 70 v 

Blessed Madeleine Sophie Barat (Religious of the Sacred 

Heart) opposite page 78 

Sister Bernardine (Dominican Sisters) ... .opposite page 90 v 
Blessed Julia Billiart (Sisters of Notre Dame of 

Namur ) opposite page 120 

A Sister of Providence of St. Mary-of-the-Woods 

opposite page 128 

A Sister of the Holy Cross opposite page 136 v 

Mother M. Euphrasia Pelletier (Sisters of the Good 

Shepherd) opposite page 144 

Mother Genevieve (Sisters of Mercy) opposite page 150 

Sisters of the Most Precious Blood opposite page 156 

Mother Caroline Friess (School Sisters of Notre Dame) 

opposite page 172 

Sisters of St. Francis (Glen Riddle, Pa.) . .opposite page 200 
Ven. Mother Frances Schervier (Sisters of the Poor of 

St. Francis) opposite page 210 

Mother Cornelia Connelly (Sisters of the Holy Child 

Jesus) opposite page 228 

A Sister of Charity of the Incarnate Word 

opposite page 234 

A Sister of St. Francis (Clinton, Iowa) opposite page 238 

Mother Katharina Kasper (Poor Handmaids of Jesus 

Christ) opposite page 242 

16 



^ 



PORTRAIT ILLUSTRATIONS 17 

Mother Pauline Von Mallinekrodt (Sisters of Christian 

Charity) opposite page 250 

Benedictine Sisters of the Cong, of Mt. Olive (White 

Benedictine) opposite page 258 

A Sister of Providence of Charity opposite page 270 

A Poor Clare opposite page 276 

Sister Adorer of the Precious Blood opposite page 292 

Mission Helpers of the Sacred Heart opposite page 296 ^ 

A Sister of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Col- 
ored People opposite page 304 

Mother Mary of Providence (Helpers of the Holy Souls) 

opposite page 308 v 

Mother Therese Couderc (Society of Our Lady of Re- 
treat in the Cenacle) opposite page 312 

Mother M. Alexine (Sisters of St. Joseph) .opposite page 326 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Landing of the Ursulines Frontispiece 

Ursuline Convent (New Orleans) opposite page 22 

TJrsuline Convent (Great Tails, Mont.) . . . .opposite page 24 

St. Joseph's Convent (Emmitsburg) opposite page 44 . 

Loretto Convent (Loretto, Ky.) opposite page 56 

Nazareth Convent (Nazareth, Ky.) opposite page 58 

Mt. de Chantal Visitation Convent (Wheeling) 

opposite page 66 

Mt St VinVent-on-the-Hudson opposite page 74 

"Kenwood" (Albany, New York) opposite page 84 

Dominican Convent (St. Catherine, Ky.) . .opposite page 92 

Mt. St. Joseph-on-the-Ohio opposite page 96 

St. MaryVof-the-Springs opposite page 106 

Notre Dame Convent (Cincinnati) opposite page 124 

St. Mary-of-the-Woods opposite page 132 

St. Mary's (Notre Dame, Ind.) opposite page 140 

Xavier Convent of Mercy (Chicago) opposite page 152 

Mother-House of the Sisters of the Precions Blood 

opposite page 158 

St. Mary's (Monroe, Michigan) opposite page 162 

Notre Dame Convent (Milwankee) opposite page 176 

St. Rose Convent (La Crosse, Wis.) opposite page 186 

Convent of Our Lady of Angels (Glen Riddle, Pa.) .... 

opposite page Zv& 

Convent of St. Catherine of Sienna (Racine, Wis.) 

opposite page zuo 

St. Claris Convent' (Hartwell, Ohio) opposite page 212 

Ursuline Convent (Crescent Hill, Ky.) opposite page 216 

St. Elizabeth's (Convent Station, N. J.) . . .opposite page 222 

18 



r 

/ ; ,. 
ILLUSTRATIONS 19 

Convent of the Holy Child Jesus (Sharon Hill, Pa.) 

opposite page 230 

Mt. St. Clare (Clinton, Iowa) opposite page 240 ^. 

Mother-House of the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ.. 

opposite page 242 

Mallinekrodt Convent (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.) .opposite page 254" 
Holy Angels Convent (Jonesboro, Ark.) . ..opposite page 260" 
Mother-House of the Sisters of St. Francis and Christian 

Charity opposite page 264 * 

Notre Dame Convent (Cleveland) .opposite page 266 

Monastery of Mt. St. Clare (West Park) opposite page 272 

Interior Cloister, Dominican Monastery (Hunt's Point) 

opposite page 282 

Mother-House Srs. of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians 
and Colored People opposite page 300 

St. Regis Convent of the Cenaele (New York City) 

opposite page 314 " 

Mt. St. Mary's (Cherokee, Iowa) opposite page 316 



THE URSULINES* 

1727 

"The hand that rocks the cradle rules the 
world." But when the hand that should mold 
the destinies of nations turns from its noble duty 
to grasp at flitting pleasures, who shall take up 
its neglected labor, and shape to purposes divine 
that living, breathing clay, which left to degener- 
ate nature, must tend to evil and subvert the 
glorious ends for which it is endowed — with be- 
ing, reason, soul? 

Long ago a martial son of Catholic Spain re- 
solved to make war on the evil one, who, by 
blinding parents to the sacred duty of early in- 
structing their little ones in the holy truths of 
faith, was misleading these innocents by millions. 
Ignatius of Loyola laid down his sword and 
raised aloft the Cross. Crowned with military 
laurels, he turned from the battlefield to tread 
the trying path of a collegian. He, like many 
noble knights of those times, was but little versed 
in letters, though his talents were not poor, as 
occasional exercise of them proved, yet to teach 
he must learn. 

The history of his Order, his own wondrous life, 
are too well known to allow comment here, but, 
after all, it was not his to train the hand which 
must rule the world. Ere the schools could claim 
the child the home must have given its impress to 
heart and mind. Who could enter the hallowed 

*Especially prepared by the Ursuline Nuns, Mount Angela, Great 
Palls. Montana. 

21 



22 THE URSULINES 

precincts? There the mother alone may rule. 
Who will train the mother that she may mold 
aright the pliant youth? 

From Dezanzano, on blue Garda's beauteous 
shore, comes a virgin, fair to look upon, the fra- 
grance of her virtues is as the perfume of the 
orange trees 'neath which she played in her child- 
hood, while a mother's pious influence and a 
father's cultured mind shielded her from sin and 
developed every pure and noble aspiration of the 
gifted maid. Dire conflicts have torn her beloved 
land. Its valleys have been bathed in blood, and 
its hills echoed the clash of contending armies. 
At our Saviour's Tomb Angela has knelt in fer- 
vent prayer for guidance and for strength. 
Through her intercession the ship bearing her 
back to Italy's shore is saved from perils threat- 
ening ruin. Her mission has been declared by 
her own sainted sister in a vision, and by the 
glorious virgin martyr, Saint Ursula. 

No longer can she hesitate, but gathering a few 
virgins around her in her room adjoining St. 
Afra's, she begins, in 1535, the society she had so 
long sighed to form. The Ursulines commence 
their work, humble, patient, ardent. 

Young girls, and even matrons, are instructed; 
the sacred ties of home are firmer made by holy 
bonds of Faith, Hope and Charity. Noble ladies 
become protectresses of the infant society, learned 
ecclesiastics approve and encourage, and from 
Brescia its influence reaches to neighboring dis- 
tricts. 

Angela dying, leaves her daughters a precious 
legacy, counsels worthy the saint and sage. St. 
Charles Boromeo, in 1572, established a house of 
the congregation in Milan. He gave the Sisters 




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THE URSULINES 23 

rules and constitutions and cloisters. They were 
solemnly recognized as an Order by Bulls of 
Popes Paul V. in 1612, and Urban VIII. in 1640. 

In the different dioceses of Italy and France 
houses were established with slight differences in 
their constitutions, forming the divers congrega- 
tions of Paris, Milan, Tours, etc., but all one in 
spirit, and the chief end the education, religious 
and secular, of young girls. 

The first religious house in America was 
founded at Quebec, in 1639, by the Blessed Mother 
Marie de lTncarnation, under the protection of 
Mme. de la Peltrie. 

The first convent in the territory now forming 
the United States was established in Louisiana, 
then a French province. In 1727, Governor 
Bienville of New Orleans, feeling that the 
prosperity, and even the existence of the colony, 
depended, in a measure, in establishing educa- 
tional institutions for the young, applied to the 
Ursulines of Rouen, France, for Sisters who 
would undertake such work in the new world. 

To Governor Bienville, then, is not only New 
Orleans but the entire United States indebted for 
its first Sisters and the successful institutions of 
their labors. 

"After a most perilous voyage of six months, a 
band of heroic Ursuline Nuns, with Mother St. 
Augustine as Superior, arrived in New Orleans, 
August 7, 1727. The monastery— the Company 
of the West Indies was building for the nuns — 
not being complete, the best house in the colony, 
Bienville's country home, was offered them for 
temporary abode. This then was the first home 
of the first religious order of women to enter the 

♦Inserted from material furnished by the Ursuline Nuns, Ursuline 
Convent, No. 4580 Dauphine Street, New Orleans, Louisiana. 



24 THE URSULINES 

vast region between the Great Lakes and the Gulf, 
and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. 

"Almost immediately the good nuns began to 
teach the children, to instruct the Indian and ne- 
gro races, and to care for the sick. With the 
years, new enforcements of Ursulines came from 
France to assist their noble sisters in their work 
and in establishing needed orphanages, schools 
and hospitals. Whilst they labored, wars and ru- 
mors of wars, and dissensions, military and civil 
and ecclesiastic, disturbed the city outside their 
convent walls. Through the unsettled times with 
the government when Spain restored Louisiana 
to France, and Napoleon, being in need of money, 
sold the gift to the United States for $15,000,000, 
after keeping possession some twenty days, and 
when on December 20, 1803, the Stars and Stripes 
replaced the French tricolor, the Ursulines re- 
mained, and flourished amid these trials and dif- 
ficulties. 

"On January 8, 1815, the nuns could see the 
smoke rising from the plains of Chalmette, at the 
battle of New Orleans, and hear the rumbling of 
cannon and the report of rifles. All night long 
they watched before the Blessed Sacrament and 
besought the God of Battles, through the interces- 
sion of Our Lady of Prompt Succor, to give the 
victory to the American army, then made ready 
their school-rooms into infirmaries for the sick 
and wounded soldiers upon whom they lavished 
every care. When the war was over, the great 
general did not omit to pay his respects to the 
Sisters and thank them for their vows and 
prayers in the Country's cause, nor did he fail to 
visit them when he returned to New Orleans in 
after years. Andrew Jackson was the last great 




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THE URSULINES 25 

warrior who passed into the cloisters of the old 
convent on Ghartres Street, and the only Presi- 
dent of the United States that ever stood within 
its sacred precincts. 

"Those historic years past, other laborers hav- 
ing come into the vineyard, the Ursulines have 
long since given up their attendance on the sick 
and devote themselves to the chief end for which 
their order was instituted — the education of 
youth. Now, as in olden times, their schools con- 
tinue to bear the highest of reputations, and the 
Ursuline Academy in New Orleans is claimed as 
Alma Mater by many of the noblest ladies in our 
land." 

In the year 1851, the Right Reverend L. A. 
Rappe, Bishop of Cleveland, Ohio, solicited the 
help of the nuns from the famous Ursuline Mon- 
astery of Boulogne-sur-Mer, France. The good 
Sisters responding to this appeal were at once es- 
tablished in Cleveland, whilst in 1854 a new foun- 
dation was made by them in Toledo, Ohio. 

Having been invited to Montana by the late, 
lamented Bishop Brondel, to evangelize and edu- 
cate the Cheyenne Indian children, six Ursulines, 
under the guidance of Reverend Mother Mary 
Amadeus, went forth from the sanctuary of their 
peaceful convent in Toledo, Ohio, to the haunts 
of the savage tribes; from the halls of civilization 
to the wilds of semi-barbarism; to cope with vice 
and ignorance in some of their most revolting 
forms. 

In less than thirty years the desert has been 
made to blossom as a rose; the number of Sisters 
has increased in proportion to the needs in the 
many houses which have since been established in 
this now flourishing part of the country. In Mon- 



26 THE URSULINES 

tana, as in the many other states wherein the 
Ursulines have their numerous institutions, the 
Academies and Missions prosper and carry on 
the work of the Sainted Foundress. Besides the 
many Academies composing the Montana group, 
we find St. Labre's Mission among the Cheyenne 
Indians, St. Peter's Mission for the education of 
Indians of various tribes, St. Paul's Mission 
among the Gros Ventres and St. Xavier's Mission 
among the Grows, St. Ignatius' Mission among the 
Flatheads, and Holy Family Mission among the 
Black Feet. Recently the Ursulines have also 
planted the standard in the far distant Alaska 
Missions. 

During the last twelve years, a great change 
has taken place in the Ursuline Order. Our late 
Holy Father, Leo XIII., having invited all the 
houses to unite themselves under the government 
of a Mother General with headquarters in Rome, 
a general Chapter was convened in Rome, and on 
November 25, 1900, the first Prioress General 
of the Ursuline Order was elected. Sixty-two 
houses responded to this invitation of the Su- 
preme Pontiff, and shared in this first election. 
Representatives of many Ursuline convents in the 
United States were present on this occasion. 

The Ursuline houses in the different countries 
are divided into provinces under the government 
of Provincials. In the United States there are two 
general provinces: the Northern and the South- 
ern, with the addition of a sub-province in Alaska. 

In 1903, the new Constitutions of the Order re- 
ceived the Papal approbation of Leo XIII. 

In 1907, the number of Ursuline houses united 
under the "canonical union" was 135 with a total 
of near four thousand members; since then the 




The Ursulines at their First Indian Mission 
St. Labre's on the Tongue Eiver 



THE URSULINES 27 

number has steadily increased. Many of the Con- 
vents in the United States are still independent of 
this Union as the desire of the Holy Father was 
that all should be left entirely free to join or to 
remain independent. 

Cardinal Satolli, — Cardinal-Protector of the 
Ursuline group of Rome, Blois, Calvi, — in the dis- 
course pronounced on the fifteenth day of No- 
vember in the year of Our Salvation nineteen 
hundred, at the Opening of the First General 
Chapter of the Ursuline Order convened in Rome 
with a view to their Canonical Union, said, in 
part, with eloquent tribute and in appeal for the 
unification of this Order: — "With keen intuition 
of the needs of the Church, Our Holy Father leads, 
as far as he can, all orders toward unity, con- 
vinced that, unity being one of the marks of the 
Church, it should be communicated as opportu- 
nity serves, to all parts thereof, and above all to 
the most illustrious and fruitful. 

What order more illustrious than yours, both as 
to origin and antiquity? All praise to St. Angela 
Merici your foundress, glory of the Church and 
of Italy. All praise to the galaxy of saintly Ursu- 
lines who have succeeded one another during 
three centuries!" 



28 THE CARMELITE NUNS 



THE CARMELITE NUNS* 
1790 

In the Old World, toward the middle of the Fif- 
teenth century, several religious communities of 
women petitioned John Soreth, the General of 
the Carmelite Friars, to allow them to become 
affiliated with that order. In 1452, therefore, 
these Sisters were given the rule and constitution 
of the friars, to which were added some special 
regulations for the nuns. 

The prestige of the Carmelite Nuns grew rap- 
idly. The Duchess of Brittany, Blessed Frances 
d'Amboise, joined one of the convents which she 
herself founded. Before the end of the century 
convents had been established in France, Italy, 
and Spain, especially in the latter country; the 
manner of the life of the nuns was greatly ad- 
mired and several convents there became so 
crowded that the slender means available hardly 
sufficed for their maintenance. 

In 1535, at the convent in Avila, Old Castile, 
there entered, in the twentieth year of her life, 
Teresa Y'Ahumada, daughter of Don Alonsa San- 
chez de Cepeda and Dona Beatriz Y'Ahumada. 
When Teresa was in her fourteenth year her 
mother died, therefore her saintly father, a lover 
of serious books, lavished on her maternal as well 
as paternal care. For her education, Teresa was 
sent to the Augustinian Nuns in her native town 
of Avila, but owing to illness she left at the end 

*Especially prepared from authentic historical facts and from "A 
Short History of Carmel," furnished by the Carmelite Nuns, Caroline 
and Biddle Streets, Baltimore, Maryland. 



THE CARMELITE NUNS 29 

of eighteen months and for some years remained 
with her father and occasionally with other rela- 
tives, notably an uncle who made her acquainted 
with the "Letters of St. Jerome," the study of 
which determined her to become a religious, not 
so much through any attraction towards that life, 
as through a desire of choosing the safest course. 

In November of 1535, nothwithstanding her fa- 
ther's objections, she entered the Carmelite Con- 
vent of the Incarnation, at Avila, the community 
there then numbering one hundred and forty. 
Soon after this, her father consented to her re- 
maining at the convent and Teresa was given the 
habit. After her profession she became seriously 
ill. From this illness she made only a partial 
recovery; her health remained permanently im- 
paired. 

During her years of suffering she began the 
practice of mental prayer; meanwhile God 
granted her wonderful visions, — manifestations of 
His Divine Will. The account of her spiritual 
life forms one of the most remarkable spiritual 
biographies, with which only the "Confessions of 
St. Augustine" can bear comparison. 

In 1562, St. Teresa founded, at Avila, the Con- 
vent of Discalced Carmelite Nuns of the Primitive 
Rule of St. Joseph. After six months she ob- 
tained permission to take up her residence there. 
Four years later, the General of the Carmelite 
Friars, John Baptist Rubeo, visited this convent 
and not only approved of it but he granted per- 
mission for the establishment of other convents. 
In rapid succession then were foundations made, 
everywhere were found souls generous enough to 
embrace the austerities of the primitive rule of 
Carmel. 



30 THE CARMELITE NUNS 

A period of four years of persecution and trou- 
ble then occurred; this threatened to undo the 
work of St. Teresa. However, the ordeal passed 
and the Province of Discalced Carmelites, with 
the support of Philip II., was approved and canon- 
ically established on June 22, 1580. 

St. Teresa, though old and broken in health, 
continued the establishment of convents. In this 
work she was then ably assisted by the Venerable 
Ann of Jesus. In 1582, St. Teresa died, her beati- 
fication took place in 1614, followed by her canon- 
ization in 1622, under Pope Gregory XV., and Oc- 
tober 15 was declared the feast of St. Teresa. 

In 1619, some thirty years after the death of 
St. Teresa, Lady Mary Lovell, daughter of Lord 
Roper, founded a Carmelite convent in Antwerp 
for English-speaking ladies who wished to become 
Carmelites, but who could not at that time enter 
the cloister in their own countries. The first Pri- 
oress of this foundation and her companions had 
lived for years with the Spanish Mothers, who 
had founded monasteries throughout the Nether- 
lands, under the protection of the Infanta Isabella 
and governed by Ven. Mother Ann of St. Bartholo- 
mew, in whose arms St. Teresa died. These foun- 
dresses were imbued with the true spirit of the 
Order from the fountain source. The profession 
book of this monastery records some of the noblest 
names of England — Herbert, Somersett, Vaughn, 
and always, for generations, a Howard. Later on 
Brent, Pye and Matthews, old Maryland names, 
were added to the list, for these intrepid Ameri- 
cans crossed the ocean to enter Carmel, and 
through them the Monastery of Antwerp became 
the parent house of the Discalceated Carmelites 
in the United States. 






THE CARMELITE NUNS 31 

In 1790 Rev. John Carroll received his appoint- 
ment as first Bishop of Baltimore. He was brother 
of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the "Signer," 
and for five years he had been Superior of the 
American clergy, then numbering about thirty 
priests, in a territory comprising the whole of the 
United States. His first act after his appointment 
was to invite the Carmelites to his vast diocese 
"to pray for the American Missions." 

This was just after the Revolutionary War, and 
Rev. Ignatius Matthews of Washington, wrote to 
his sister, Mother Bernadina: "Now is the time 
to found in this country, for peace is declared 
and religion is free." In answer to this invita- 
tion, four nuns braved an ocean voyage of three 
months, and untold privations, to plant the vine 
of Carmel in the New World. 

On the feast of St. Teresa, of the year 1790, the 
first Carmelite Convent in the United States was 
dedicated. The convent was on the Brooke es- 
tate, about four miles from Port Tobacco, Charles 
County, Maryland. In 1830 it was decided to re- 
move the convent to a more convenient site; 
ground was therefore secured on Aisquith Street, 
in Baltimore, and a building at once erected. The 
community removed to it in 1831. In 1872 another 
change was found necessary and removal was 
made to the present convent, on Caroline and 
Biddle Streets — the real Mother-house of the Car- 
melites in the United States. 

For many years there was no new foundation 
in the United States, and this is not surprising, 
for it was a sublime evidence of faith in prayer 
that even one such monastery should flourish in 
those pioneer days when the cry for active la- 
borers was echoed throughout the length and 
breadth of the land. 



32 THE CARMELITE NUtfS 

Not until 1863 did nuns from the Baltimore 
Carmel found the Monastery, on Eighteenth and 
Victor Streets, in St. Louis, which, in 1877, sent 
forth a new offshoot to New Orleans, where a 
Monastery was established at 1236 North Rampart 
Street. During the great Catholic Congress held 
at Baltimore in 1889, the Boston delegates learned 
of the esteem in which the Carmelites were held 
in that city by both clergy and laity, and that 
blessings enjoyed by its citizens were attributed 
to their prayers and holy lives. 

Devout Catholics in Boston wished to have a 
house of Mount Carmel, and the wish was ap- 
proved by the late Archbishop of Boston. On 
August 28, 1890 (the centennial year of the Car- 
melites in America), five nuns, appointed by Car- 
dinal Gibbons, from the Baltimore Carmel, es- 
tablished a foundation at 61 Mt. Pleasant Avenue, 
Roxbury, Boston. There the nuns have been en- 
abled to have a Monastery built after their own 
model and adapted to the peculiar needs of a 
cloistered community. Attached to this Monastery 
is a suitable chapel adequate to the wants of the 
faithful, who not only bring here their petitions 
and alms, but who also love to gather near this 
cloister for Mass, Benediction, Novenas and the 
numerous devotions springing from the heart of 
Carmel. 

In 1902 the community in Boston founded a Mon- 
astery on Sixty-sixth Avenue and York Road, Oak 
Lane, Philadelphia. Nineteen hundred and seven 
saw the opening of the Monastery of Our Lady of 
Mt. Carmel, 745 St. John's Place, Brooklyn. Since 
that time monasteries have also been established 
at Eighteenth Avenue and Howell Street, Seattle, 
Washington; and at Fifteenth and Brady Streets, 
in Davenport, Iowa. 



THE CARMELITE NUNS 33 

The questions are often asked, "What is a Car- 
melite Nun, and what does she do?" The follow- 
ing answers may be given: She is an elect soul 
who has heeded the counsel of our Lord and ac- 
cepted His invitation to turn from the world, to 
take up the Cross and to follow Him; she under- 
takes an expiatory life of penance and atonement 
for her own sins and those of others; she follows 
an apostolic life of prayer for the salvation of 
souls, and especially for the needs of the Church; 
a life of praise and adoration, performing in the 
Church on earth the office of the beatified in 
heaven, who praise God without ceasing; a life 
of intercession for the temporal and spiritual 
needs of all who seek the aid of her prayers, for 
health and relief of soul and body, and for con- 
version of heart and perseverance in well-doing. 

Dwelling in her strict cloister as in the ante- 
chamber of heaven, the Carmelite daily presents 
to the King of Heaven petitions for souls dwelling 
more remote from Him and hindered or delayed 
from approaching His throne. To make her pray- 
ers more efficacious, she prepares her soul by 
penances, by perpetual abstinence, by almost con- 
tinual fasting, by sleeping on straw, wearing 
coarse woolen, and by many other exercises of 
constant mortification. 

The Carmelite has always time to pray for the 
Church and for souls. She is set apart to pray and 
do penance. These are her life-work, her calling, 
the end and aim (as they are the happiness) of 
her life, and it is thus she deals a direct blow at 
the infidelity and the indulgence of the world. 
The time of the Carmelite, after the recitation of 
the Divine Office and devotions, is given to man- 
ual labor and needlework to aid in supporting 



34 THE CARMELITE NUNS 

the community. This consists in making scapu- 
lars, habits for the dead, articles for the Church, 
the chaining of rosaries, etc. The life of a Car- 
melite, though hidden, is not a useless life. 

In this age of materialism it is well to keep fast 
hold of the truth that all strength in the valley 
proceeds from prayer on the mount — the uprais- 
ing of pure hearts detached from the world of 
sense. It is the spirit of the Twentieth century 
to decry contemplative Orders, because the spirit 
of the Twentieth century is not the spirit of faith. 
The life of a Carmelite is one of blindest faith, re- 
quiring that of the strongest kind in all who 
would believe in her powerful mission. She has 
no statistics to show; no records of actions nobly 
and heroically done; no list of sick who owe re- 
stored life to her tender care; no classes of chil- 
dren reared to become useful and intelligent mem- 
bers of society; no aged poor sent peacefully to 
eternity — all these belong to her noble sisters in 
the active Orders, for whom she daily prays, be- 
seeching God's blessings on their mighty tasks. 
Her life is as secret as her cloister; her records of 
souls lost or won to Heaven are written only in 
the mind of God, unknown even to herself. 

As long as humanity is composed of body and 
soul, so long must those loving sisters — Martha 
and Mary — action and contemplation — dwell hand 
in hand in the house of our Lord. Their union 
shows Action seeking aid from Contemplation, 
and Contemplation drawing strength i om the 
face of Jesus. And, where more than in the 
United States is the aid of contemplativ 3 Orders 
needed? Where is the harvest so ripe, so ready 
for the reapers? Must they not pray the Lord 
of the harvest to send forth His laborers? 



SISTERS OF CHARITY 35 

Pius IX., of holy memory, once said to an Amer- 
ican priest: "The want of the American Church 
(U. S.) is religious orders of prayer; America is a 
young country; she has passed her infancy and is 
now in her youth, but before she arrives at ma- 
turity one essential thing is necessary — the exten- 
sion of contemplative Orders, without which she 
will never reach perfection." 

Cardinal Gibbons, in his introduction to "Car- 
mel in America," says : "If there be a country in 
which the contemplative life is needed it is surely 
in our young and active republic, where the spirit 
of action pervades all classes. That action, not 
to be exclusive and absorbing, must be counter- 
balanced by reflection and contemplation, and it 
is from the contemplative Orders we must learn 
this. Thank God, the contemplative life is not un- 
known amongst us and shows us that the days of 
heroism are not passed. May it live and flourish !" 



SISTERS OF CHARITY* 

1809 

The most disastrous epochs of the world have 
often been productive of its grandest characters, 
and the very excess of crime and suffering in a 
generatior appealing to these valiant souls, has 
stimulated them to efforts and sacrifices some- 
times heroic and fertile enough to change, as by 
miracle, the whole face of the age. 

Never, perhaps, was this truth more forcibly 

*Especially prepared from material furnished by the Sisters of 
Charity, St. Joseph's Convent, Emmitsburg, Maryland, and the Sisters 
of Charity, Mount St. Vincent-on-the-Hudson, New York City, N. Y. 



36 SISTERS OF CHARITY 

manifested than in France during the early part 
of the Seventeenth century when the country, a 
prey alternately, sometimes simultaneously — as 
during the rebellion of the Fronde — to war, for- 
eign and civil, famine and the plague, was con- 
tinuously drained of its vital resources, and when 
even the spiritual life of the people was starved 
by the decay of ecclesiastical discipline, and their 
faith jeopardized. 

When "le bon Monsieur Vincent," as St Vincent 
de Paul was wont to be called by his countrymen, 
came to Paris, he was stricken to the heart by 
the spectacle of spiritual, moral, and physical 
misery which the brilliant capital presented to 
his compassionate eyes. St. Vincent's mission was 
essentially a mission of charity, of mercy to the 
suffering and the afflicted; he had not gone very 
far in the fulfillment of this mission when he saw 
that the co-operation of woman was absolutely 
necessary for its perfect development, and he 
called her to his aid, giving her full share in the 
glory of the sowing and of the reaping. He had 
proved himself a father to all, but with that sweet 
instinct of human pity for human pain that sets 
him apart amongst the saints, he soon discovered 
that these forsaken ones wanted a mother; they 
wanted the tender touch of a mother's hand, the 
incomparable compassion of a mother's heart. He 
looked around him and saw that the time had 
come for the gratification of Louise de Marillac's 
long cherished desires. 

The de Marillacs were a fine old family, that 
for many generations had counted distinguished 
members in the military and civil service of the 
State. M. de Marillac's wife, Marguerite de 
Camus, belonged to the Noblesse de Robe, as 
the dignitaries of the bar were styled. 



SISTERS OF CHARITY 37 

When Louise, born in 1591, was still a child, 
her mother died. M. de Marillac, fearing the ef- 
fect of his own over-indulgent fondness and the 
atmosphere of political excitement which filled his 
home, sent his little daughter to the care of the 
nuns in the ancient royal Abbey of Poissy. The 
studies which she pursued strengthened the mind 
of Louise against the frivolous pursuits so attrac- 
tive to young girls in her position, and, instead of 
drawing away her thoughts from spiritual in- 
terests, seem rather to have nourished her piety 
and turned her aspirations toward the religious 
life. 

The Seventeenth century was an age of strong 
contrasts. Side by side with savage lawlessness, 
there arose examples of virtue and heroic faith 
grand and beautiful enough to redeem all the sur- 
rounding ugliness and corruption. The daughters 
of St. Teresa, after kindling the fires of their 
seraphic fervor all over Spain, had carried their 
lighted torch across the Pyrenees, and set its 
flames burning in the midst of dissolute Paris. 
Michel de Marillac, the Keeper of the Seals and 
uncle of Louise, had been chiefly instrumental in 
bringing these daughters of St. Teresa — the Car- 
melites — into France. 

It would therefore have seemed natural enough 
if Louise had felt attracted toward Carmel; but 
she did not; her preference was for the Capuchin 
Sisters, or the Daughters of the Passion as they 
were called. However, her confessor, Pere Hon- 
ore, assured her she had no vocation for the clois- 
ter, and that God had quite other designs for her. 

Pere Honore was a man held in high esteem, 
favored with the gifts of miracles and prophecy; 
Louise, with the simplicity and obedience of a 



38 SISTERS OF CHARITY 

child, bowed to his authority as to the voice of 
God Himself. She continued her quiet life of 
study and piety, devoting herself to her father for 
a few years more. She was not much over twenty 
when M. de Marillac died. Louise was now quite 
alone; her family, according to the custom of the 
country, sought at once a suitable marriage for 
her, and in dutiful compliance w T ith their wishes 
she accepted the protector of their choice and was 
united in marriage to M. Antoine Le Gras. 

Monsieur Le Gras did not belong to the nobility 
but he was of a good family — good enough to 
qualify him for the high and responsible position 
of Secretary to the Queen, Marie de Medicis. M. 
Le Gras was rich in worldly goods, and still more 
so in virtue, being the worthy representative of 
a family noted in Auvergne — their native country, 
and that of the de Marillacs — for their extraor- 
dinary love of the poor, a virtue comparatively 
unknown in those days, and one which his young 
wife was destined to display with an almost un- 
precedented generosity. Mademoiselle Le Gras, 
as she was henceforth named — her husband's 
birth not entitling her to take the title of Madame, 
which was reserved to the wives of noblemen — 
bade fair to be a very happy wife. 

In due course of time, a child came to cement 
the union, which henceforth presented every ele- 
ment of domestic happiness. This, however, did 
not lessen the place that God and His suffering 
poor had hitherto filled in Louise's heart. 

Visiting the poor was not in those days, as it is 
now, one of the obvious duties of a Catholic lady's 
life. The manners of the times, and still more, 
the horrible conditions of existence of the poor, 
put barriers between the classes which required 



SISTERS OF CHARITY 39 

extraordinary courage, both moral and physical, 
to break through. Mile. Le Gras determined to 
brave all obstacles, to run all risks, and to defy hu- 
man respect, in order to bring some relief to these 
unfortunate fellow creatures. Every day she went 
forth, penetrated into the slums where they lived, 
sought those who were sick and ministered to 
them. 

Antoine Le Gras must have been a very brave 
man to let his young wife set such a precedent to 
the society of her day. The total and systematic 
neglect of the poor in an age when faith was so 
much livelier and more heroic than in our own 
is hard to understand, but charity, though it shone 
forth in individuals, was not organized as it is 
today, and our modern appliances for making ma- 
terial life so much less cruel to the destitute were 
unknown in a century whose civilization looks to 
us like barbarism. 

Louise's devotion and activity in the service of 
the poor grew in proportion with her experience 
of their need and sufferings. However, her fervor 
and the pursuit of personal holiness did not inter- 
fere with her home-life and her duties as a mother 
and the mistress of her home. She seems to have 
seldom made her appearance at court, although 
her husband's position compelled his constant 
presence there, but she was far from leading the 
life of a recluse, and seems to have taken her 
place in society graciously and ungrudgingly^ 

Louise had been about seven years married 
when her husband, whose health had been de- 
clining for some time, though he was still a young 
man, fell suddenly ill and died, strengthened by 
the faith of his wife and consoled by her tender- 
ness and piety. Louise's life now entered on an 



40 SISTERS OF CHARITY 

altered course; she determined to renounce the 
few external signs and habits which had hitherto 
bound her to the world. Her duty to her child 
took first place in her heart and conscience, but 
this left a large margin of time and energy to 
be disposed of and Louise filled it up with prayer 
and the service of the poor. 

Louise had been nearly four years under the 
spiritual direction of St. Vincent de Paul — that 
great Apostle of Charity — before he began to as- 
sociate her with his own works of charity, many 
in which she found she could help without leaving 
her home; her house thus gradually became a cen- 
ter of charity; alms were there received and dis- 
tributed, poor girls from the provinces were sent 
there for help and protection, children were there 
instructed in the catechism and prepared for their 
First Communion, but this usefulness was not 
enough for Louise who craved to consecrate her 
life to this work. St. Vincent evidently thought 
the fruit ripe and the time come for gathering it. 

Some twelve years before this, St. Vincent, 
while preaching a mission in the parish of Chatil- 
lon, near Paris, had there established a sort of 
confraternity of charity, and before many months 
there was a "charity," as the little congregations 
were called, in nearly every parish around Paris. 

It became essential that some person, on whose 
zeal, gentleness and wisdom St. Vincent could 
rely, should be empowered to visit these numerous 
and widely scattered associations, control their 
workings, take cognizance of the lives and charac- 
ters of the members and report to him the con- 
ditions and the results of the work. 

St. Vincent felt that Mile. Le Gras was the per- 
son who united the qualities of heart and head re- 



SISTERS OF CHARITY 41 

quisite for this responsible and arduous office; she 
accepted, with joy, his proposal that she go on 
such a journey of inspection, and went forth ear- 
nestly and humbly. Soon her labor was shared 
by zealous companions who strove with her under 
the direction of St. Vincent. 

In the year 1631, the plague broke out in France 
with sudden violence and Louise returning to Paris 
from Reauvais found the city panic-stricken. Re- 
alizing the need of abundant help in the service 
of the victims of the dread disease, she at once 
began the foundation of new "charities" w T hose 
members heroically labored among the afflicted. 

Some time after this period it was found ex- 
pedient to form the "Charities," now so prosper- 
ously established, into a more complete working 
organization. It had been found necessary, at an 
earlier stage, to enlist the services of women of the 
humbler classes in the attendance on the sick — 
the physical strength of women born and nur- 
tured like Mile. Le Gras and her companion 
Dames de Charite, being unequal to the manual 
work that had to be done. 

Louise had had little difficulty in recruiting, for 
this work, peasant girls who were piously inclined 
and anxious to assist therein, but piety and physi- 
cal strength are not the only requisites for a good 
sick-nurse, and the rough and read}^ ways of the 
country girls, together with their entire ignorance, 
often made their assistance a dubious gain in the 
hospitals and sick-rooms. Louise consequently 
proposed to take a certain number of these young 
women into her own home and train them to be 
efficient nurses and at the same time complete 
their religious education, which was generally 
rudimentary. St. Vincent at once approved of 



42 SISTERS OF CHARITY 

Louise's plan which also included her wish to bind 
herself by vow to this work, and to immediately 
open her home as a kind of novitiate for the 
Filles de la Charite as these helpers of the Dames 
de Charite were called. 

The four peasant women whom Mile. Le Gras 
then took into her home in the year 1633, were in 
reality the first novices of that Community of Sis- 
ters of Charity destined to spread over the entire 
world. 

The novitiate, as in truth it was, flourished with 
a rapidity that surprised even St. Vincent. At the 
end of a year the number of women, maids and 
widows, who applied for admittance were more 
than could be accommodated in the house. 

The Divine Will being now sufficiently mani- 
fested by the success of the undertaking, St. Vin- 
cent realized the necessity of a rule for the Com- 
munity. In compliance with a request from St. 
Vincent, Louise drew up a rule and sent it to him. 
Pleased with it, St. Vincent then presented it to 
the new Community. 

The erection of the Filles de la Charite into an 
organized body, working under direction, and fol- 
lowing a prescribed rule, was a great event and at 
once enlarged their sphere of usefulness. The 
Hotel Dieu in Paris — holding over a thousand 
patients, was a field for the service of the Filles de 
la Charite, trained as they were to the care of the 
sick. 

The Association continued to grow; a larger 
central house was found necessary and was es- 
tablished in 1636. Quietly as the Community had 
hitherto gone to work, as both they and St. Vin- 
cent drew around them the veil of humility and 
obscurity, the praise and gaze of the world fol- 



SISTERS OF CHARITY 43 

lowed them and proclaimed their works before 
them. Their services were wanted everywhere, in 
homes and hospitals and prisons. Anne of Austria 
visited Louise and her Community and showed 
them great honor. Court ladies, encouraged by 
the Queen's example, became munificent patron- 
esses of the Charities. 

The Association was so far developing without 
the salutary and seemingly essential restraint of 
vows; the members worked on from day to day, 
free to abandon their manner of life without the 
sin of apostasy or any breach of distinct pledge. 
On March 25, 1642, Mile. Le Gras and four other 
members of the Community, without ceremonial 
of any kind, made simple vows for one year. 

As the years passed, the Community grew, 
houses were established throughout Europe, and 
the care of the foundlings, the aged, the sick, and 
the imprisoned became the special work of the 
Sisters; schools also were established and con- 
ducted by them. In January of 1655, the Congre- 
gation and its Rule received the sanction of the 
Holy See. 

In 1660, there were more than forty houses of 
the Sisters of Charity in France, since that time 
the Community has gained a membership of 
nearly thirty thousand earnest souls laboring 
zealously in the various institutions which they 
have founded in England, Scotland, Ireland, Swit- 
zerland, Austria, Spain, Portugal, Hungary, North 
and South America, in Constantinople, Smyrna, 
Alexandria, Damascus, Persia, Abyssinia and 
China. 

Surrounded by many of the companions who 
had joined her in her life-work — visited by her be- 
loved and worthy son Michel, who, with his wife 



44 SISTERS OF CHARITY 

and child, came for a last blessing from his 
saintly mother, Mile. Le Gras, the Foundress of 
one of the greatest of the Religious Orders of 
Women in the Catholic Church, died on March 
15, 1660. 



SISTERS OF CHARITY— 
EMMITSBURG * 

1809 

In New York City, on August 28, 1774, in one 
of the solid and stately old-time mansions lining 
a shaded street, which overlooked the harbor, was 
born Elizabeth Bayley, a child destined to become 
one of the most remarkable and saintly characters 
in the history of the Catholic Church in the United 
States. 

Her parents — Richard Bayley, who, by his ge- 
nius and industry, had risen to a high rank in 
the medical profession in New York City, and 
Catherine Charlton, daughter of a distinguished 
Episcopalian clergyman — were not members of 
the Catholic Church. 

Mrs. Bayley dying when Elizabeth was but 
three years of age, the child's education devolved 
entirely upon her father. A man of exceptional 
character, Dr. Bayley neglected nothing that could 
enhance his daughter's attainments, though Miss 
Bayley was compelled to depend principally upon 
domestic tuition for the acquisition of knowledge, 

*Especially prepared from material furnished by the Sisters of 
Charity, St. Joseph's Convent, Emmitsburg, Maryland. 




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EMMITSBURG 45 

owing to the fact that institutions of learning then 
established in our now great Republic afforded 
but a very limited course of instruction. Eliza- 
beth, in early youth, gave promise of the develop- 
ment of rare qualities, both intellectual and moral. 

At the age of twenty she was married in Trinity 
Church, New York City, to Mr. William Magee 
Seton, a prominent and prosperous merchant, a 
descendant of noted Scotch lineage. 

In the Spring of 1803, the rapid decline of Mr. 
Seton's health rendered a sea voyage expedient. 
Mrs. Seton determined to accompany her hus- 
band on this journey. Anna, the eldest daughter, 
then in her ninth year, was to be her mother's 
companion, whilst the four younger children 
were left with Mr. Seton's relatives in New York. 
The genial clime of Italy, it was thought, would 
restore lost vigor to the dear invalid. In former 
years Mr. Seton had had business relations with 
the Messrs. Filicchi, of Leghorn, and he looked 
forward with encouraging anticipation to a re- 
newal of the old friendship, but the tedious voy- 
age proved too much for his fast-failing strength 
and he died in Pisa, December 27, 1803, leaving 
his widow and child among strangers in a strange 
land. However, the Filicchi family of Leghorn 
received them with every mark of sincere sympa- 
thy and generosity. 

Bearing her affliction in a truly Christian spirit, 
Mrs. Seton visited many churches and places of 
interest before returning to America. Deeply im- 
pressed with the excellence and beauty of the 
religious ceremonial of the Catholic Church in 
Europe, after her return to New York, having 
finally triumphed in the severe ordeal through 
which she had passed in search for the true re- 



46 SISTERS OF CHARFTY 

ligion, with mature deliberation Mrs. Seton, in 
1805, embraced the Catholic faith. By this step 
she was discarded by the wealthy and influential 
relatives of her husband. 

Two great questions now occupied Mrs. Seton's 
attention. First, the question of selecting a more 
perfect state of life, and the second, of equal im- 
portance to her, was the training of her children, 
especially in reference to their own religious wel- 
fare. She felt called by Almighty God to devote 
her life to the needed cause of education and 
charity. 

While considering this matter most prayerfully, 
she had the happiness of seeing her children em- 
brace the true faith. As for herself, some friends 
proposed that she enter a convent in Canada, and 
that her children attend school in the same 
locality so that she could have a certain super- 
vision over them. Meanwhile her two sons were 
attending school at Georgetown. At this time 
Mrs. Seton was in correspondence with Bishop 
Carroll, of Baltimore, and others, among them 
Father Dubourg, the President of St. Mary's Sem- 
inary, Baltimore. 

Father Dubourg took the greatest interest in 
her direction, and knowing how she was ostra- 
cized in New York by many of her former friends, 
advised her to come to Baltimore, offering her a 
house wherein she might open a private school 
to instruct young women in the secular branches, 
but more particularly in the knowledge and prac- 
tice of their religion. Father Dubourg knowing 
also her anxiety to be near her children promised 
to admit her two sons into St. Mary's College. 
This offer appealed to Mrs. Seton and she decided 
to go at once to Baltimore, with her three daugh- 
ters. She arrived there June 15, 1808. 






EMMITSBURG 47 

In Baltimore she found a hearty welcome. Her 
school prospered and she was happy in having 
the co-operation of the saintly and learned Father 
Dubourg. While conducting her private school, 
she looked forward to the time when God would 
manifest this to her to make a special consecra- 
tion of her life to Him. In her little school she 
regulated her own actions as if she had already 
entered upon the life of a religious. 

Other pious women wishing to join Mrs. Seton 
in her noble undertaking, offered their services 
and rendered the founding of a religious Com- 
munity practicable and advisable, and for this 
work no one was more eminently qualified than 
Mrs. Seton. 

Mr. Samuel Cooper, like Mrs. Seton, a conver t 
from Anglicanism, was then studying Tor uie 
priesthood at St. Mary's Seminary, Baltimore. He 
offered a gift of ten thousand dollars for the good 
work contemplated by Mrs. Seton and her earnest 
companions. Mr. Cooper asked that Emmitsburg 
be considered as a location for the institution to 
be established. Accordingly a farm was pur- 
chased near Emmitsburg. 

A log house, which is still preserved, became 
the humble abode of Mother Seton — as we shall 
henceforth call her — and the co-workers in her 
school work accompanying her. On the feast of 
St. Ignatius, July 31, 1809, Mother Seton and her 
companions took permanent possession of the log 
house and began the foundation of St. Joseph's. 
Father Dubois, of Mount St. Mary's, was the su- 
perior, and director, and chaplain of the new 
Community. He was succeeded by Father Brute, 
styled "Angel of the Mount," who served in this 
capacity until 1836. 



48 SISTERS OF CHARITY 

The noble efforts of Mother Seton have been 
crowned with success even on earth; time has 
exalted her work, and today we behold the groups 
of buildings that mark the outpourings of one of 
the greatest philanthropic feats of the century, 
which for more than one hundred years has 
tended to the relief, elevation and refinement of 
mankind, irrespective of creed or social standing; 
alike the Protestant the Catholic, the rich or the 
poor. 

Mother Seton, in founding the Community, laid 
solidly the foundation of a remarkable lay com- 
munity, selecting for their guidance the rule of 
St. Vincent de Paul, observed by the Daughters of 
Charity in France, and adopted the costume of 
the French Community, being described thence- 
forward as the "Cornette Sisters." 

The Community known as the Daughters of 
Charity, instituted by St. Vincent de Paul, is an 
absolutely lay Institute, having for a cloister, hos- 
pitals, prisons, asylums, and the hovels of the for- 
saken poor. Hence there is no novitiate, prop- 
erly, so-called; their vows are not public; they 
are not accepted in the name of the Church. 

If, after several years spent in the community, 
they make annual vows, these vows are of a char- 
acter purely private without other witness than 
God and one's own conscience. The Superior- 
General of the Congregation of the Priests of the 
Mission is the Superior-General of the Daughters 
of Charity. 

In 1810, Mother Seton and her Community re- 
moved to a new house, a log building of two 
stories, and still known as the "White House." 
In time, increasing numbers demanded space, and 
other buildings were added. In 1814 Sisters were 




A SISTER OF CHARITY 
Emmitsburor 



/ 



OF NAZARETH 63 

Carroll, the peerless leader and educator, brought 
Nazareth to rank among the most famous schools 
of the south. And with whole-hearted devotion 
have the valiant women since chosen to direct 
the Society, upheld its reputation and extended 
its works, ever keeping abreast with the require- 
ments of the times. After Mother Columba came 
Mother Helena Tormey, followed by Mother M. 
Cleophas Mills, and Mother Alphonsa Kerr — the 
latter still lives to serve the Community, though 
relieved of the burden of office. The next incum- 
bent, Mother Eutropia McMahon, sought and ob- 
tained for the Society the formal approbation of 
the Holy See, in 1910, and was elected first Mother 
General under the newly approved Constitutions, 
but in less than a year, God called her to Himself. 
On the 19th of July following, Mother Rose Mea- 
gher was chosen to fill the vacant place. The new 
Superior General has filled many responsible po- 
sitions in the Society and is well fitted by her wide 
experience to lead Nazareth's daughters onward 
in their ever-widening sphere of useful endeavor. 
As the years roll on, fresh needs arise and new 
fields of labor are engaged in. Not a work of 
charity but has been gladly undertaken, when 
possible, by the Sisters of Nazareth, whose sym- 
pathy is with the poor and the suffering, in whom, 
like St. Vincent de Paul, they see God. The care 
of the sick and the orphan and the Christian edu- 
cation of youth are the chief works of the So- 
ciety; in times of distress and calamity, however, 
the Sisters, with a devotion born of the love of 
Christ Whose Charity urges them, have braved 
the dangers of the battlefield and the eruptive 
hospitals, or, as "Martyrs of Charity," they have 
willingly sacrificed their lives to care for the vie- 



64 VISITATION NUNS 

tims of the cholera and yellow fever in epidemics 
of these dread diseases. 

God has blessed the humble work begun for His 
honor and the Centennial year crowns with glory 
undimmed "New Nazareth and Old," the home of 
spiritual, moral and intellectual culture. Its 
steady growth and prosperity point to the opening 
of new houses, swelling the number of Branch 
Houses to nearly sixty, distributed in the Arch- 
dioceses of Baltimore and Boston, and in the Dio- 
ceses of Columbus, Covington, Little Rock, Louis- 
ville, Nashville, Natchez and Richmond. These 
include academies, parochial schools, hospitals, 
infirmaries and homes. The Sisters teach upwards 
of 17,000 children and yearly care for about 4,200 
sick; the homes shelter over a hundred. Since 
the little seed has grown to such a mighty tree in 
one century, let us hope that God will give it a 
proportionate increase in the years to come. 



VISITATION NUNS* 
1816 

The Visitation Nuns were founded in 1610 at 
Annecy, in the Duchy of Savoy, by St. Francis de 
Sales — Bishop of Geneva — and by St. Jane de 
Chantal. 

Their aim was to secure the benefit of the re- 
ligious life for persons who had neither the phys- 
ical strength nor the attraction for the corporal 
austerities at that time general in religious Orders. 
St. Francis wished especially to apply in souls of 

*Shea's "History of the Catholic Church in the United States," 
Catholic Encyclopaedia. 



EMMITSBURG 49 

asked to take charge of an orphan asylum in Phil- 
adelphia, and in 1817 a similar request came from 
New York City. In 1816 the Institution at Emmits- 
burg was incorporated in the State of Maryland. 

In the Summer of 1820, Mother Seton contracted 
a pulmonary disease from which she never re- 
covered. On January 4, 1821, in her forty-seventh 
year, this saintly foundress of the Sisters of Char- 
ity in America, passed to her eternal rest. 

The title of "Mother" conferred upon Mother 
Seton by Bishop Carroll, is still borne by her suc- 
cessors. 

In 1846 the separation of the Sisters in New 
York into a distinct community took place. 

In 1849, the Sisters of Charity at Emmitsburg, 
were formally affiliated to the Daughters of Char- 
ity — Filles de la Charite— in France, and since 
then have been under the rule of the Mother- 
house in Paris. 

In 1902, the power of conferring collegiate de- 
grees was given to St. Joseph's, the third oldest 
educational institution for women in the United 
States, the Alma Mater of many of the most prom- 
inent women in the literary, educational and so- 
cial spheres in the country. 

Besides the numerous educational institutions, 
hospitals, asylums, and industrial schools con- 
ducted throughout the United States by the Sisters 
of Charity of Emmitsburg, it is also to their care 
that Louisiana has intrusted the God-sent mission 
of the Leper Home — provided for those victims 
of whom even the Sacred Scripture speaks in 
thrilling terms. 

In times of war, the charity and heroic zeal of 
these Filles de la Charite has penetrated to the 
battlefield and there ministered to the wounded 



50 SISTERS OF LORETTO 

and the dying. Thousands of homeless girls owe 
their religious training, their success in life, to 
these Sisters who have rescued them from sad 
fates and enabled them to earn an independent 
livelihood. Orphans and helpless babes find care, 
shelter and a home in their asylums, besides the 
immense good effected by their parochial schools 
from the Golden Gates to the Atlantic, from the 
extreme North to the South. 



SISTERS OF LORETTO* 

AT THE 

FOOT OF THE CROSS 
1812 

Like many others whose life-work has changed 
the course of affairs, comparatively little is 
known of the history of the founders of the Sis- 
ters of Loretto, the first purely American Reli- 
gious Order of Women in the United States. 

We know that Mary Rhodes was born in Mary- 
land and received a convent education with the 
nuns at Georgetown, D. G. While on a visit to her 
brother and his family, who had earlier migrated 
to Kentucky with the Maryland colonists, the con- 
dition confronting her brother in regard to the 
education of his children called forth a responsive 
apprehension within her. What she could do to 
remedy this she did, by becoming a member of 
her brother's household, where she gave the chil- 
dren daily instructions. 

Realizing that in the surrounding homes there 

*Especially prepared from "Loretto, Annals of the Century," by 
Anna C. Minogue, furnished, with other material, by the Sisters of 
Loretto, Loretto Mother-House, Nerinx, P. O. Loretto, Kentucky. 



SISTERS OF LORETTO 51 

were many children like her own brother's chil- 
dren — heirs of education and religion, and denied 
every opportunity of coming into their inheri- 
tance of the former, while the latter they stood 
every chance of losing. 

Her generous heart yearning over these chil- 
dren, she conceived the idea of extending her 
labors and giving all the children of the neighbor- 
hood the advantages her own relatives were re- 
ceiving. While Bennet Rhodes may naturally 
have shrunk from seeing his young sister assum- 
ing the hardships of a teacher's profession, he was 
in full accord with her desire to make her life 
beneficial to the youth of the new country, hence- 
forth their home. 

When the project was laid before Father Ner- 
inckx, the heroic Belgium exile, the loved mis- 
sionary of the Kentuckians, glad was he to find 
the dearest concern of his heart, the religious edu- 
cation of the young, shared by this intelligent and 
generous soul. 

With his consent Mary Rhodes opened her 
school in a cabin where the little children could 
come to her. Father Nerinckx soon perceived 
that the young teacher's tasks were growing be- 
yond her and he offered her an assistant in Miss 
Christina Stuart who, like Miss Rhodes, was de- 
sirous of employing herself in this great work. 

Gladly did Mary Rhodes accept the proffered 
assistance, and when Miss Stuart took up her resi- 
dence at Mr. Rhodes' hospitable home the regard 
of the teachers for each other grew into the deep 
affection of friends. They could reveal to each 
other what before had been wisely hidden from 
the uncomprehending, that the prospects to which 
the other girls of their acquaintance turned gladly 



52 SISTERS OF LORETTO 

were repellent to them, the higher thought that 
had led one on, was now known to be the lodestar 
of the other; thus drawn together by the ardent 
desire of the soul, they unconsciously advanced 
toward the hour decreed for them since the be- 
ginning. The social demands which the neigh- 
borhood made upon them distracted them in their 
spiritual progress and interfered with their work 
in the school, possessed of the passion for spir- 
itual perfection and realizing the need of quiet 
and seclusion Mary Rhodes and her sister co-la- 
borer determined to live away from family and 
friends. 

Adjoining the school was another cabin and 
here the two young women concluded to take up 
their abode, contrary to the wishes of their 
friends, who held it madness, but who felt that 
the best cure for folly was to allow it to run its 
course, and that within a short time they would 
see the young women returning to the society 
they had foresworn. 

But the spirit of enterprise that so strongly 
filled . the land found unimpeded way in the 
bosom of these earnest souls, they were bent upon 
planting Christian education on the frontier and 
accepting the condition of sacrifice as the neces- 
sary ground for a great work they, in saying good- 
bye to the life they had known, knew their de- 
parture was not for a time, but forever. 

Removing to their cabin-home, they made it as 
nearly habitable as possible and with sublime 
trust entered upon their new world of endeavor. 
Scarcely was it begun when a third young lady 
came to offer herself as an eager assistant in 
their noble work, and Nancy Havern was ac- 
corded the welcome her courageous act merited. 







A SISTER OF LORETTO 
Loretto Convent, Loretto, Kentucky 






SISTERS OF LORETTO 53 

No record shows which of the three intrepid 
ones suggested that step, the taking of which 
thousands of consecrated virgins shall bless, as 
they follow in that glorious path, but the sugges- 
tion made by one found an echo in the hearts 
of the other two, and they turned to Father 
Nerinckx and zealously and nobly offered them- 
selves, through him, to God and His Church. 

The joy that filled the good priest's heart was 
tempered by the spirit of prudence. Long-tried 
in the school of experience, he warned the young 
women that the life they were electing to follow 
demanded sacrifices of which they had no con- 
ception. They dutifully acquiesced in his state- 
ments, but remaining in the mind to continue as 
they had begun, they besought him to give them 
some rule by which to govern themselves. 

Father Nerinckx yielded to their importunity 
and wrote out a few directions for their use, then 
set out to inform Bishop Flaget of the pious pro- 
ject of three of his parishioners and of his own 
action in their regard. No restraining motive was 
experienced by the bishop, who knew Christ 
would not fail His Church, and in the wilds of 
Kentucky He could produce her necessary Reli- 
gious Orders as well as in the populous countries 
of the Old World. Bishop Flaget gave the under- 
taking his warmest approval and placed it under 
the care of Father Nerinckx, who lost no time in 
acquainting the young women with the decree of 
the bishop. 

The three aspirants immediately asked Fa- 
ther Nerinckx to appoint a Superior, he bade 
them choose their own until they should number 
five or six members, when they could hold a reg- 
ular election. They then selected Mary Rhodes, 



54 SISTERS OF LORETTO 

and thus practically established the first religious 
institute of the West. 

On April 25, 1812, in the little log church of St. 
Charles, Harden's Creek, Kentucky, in the pres- 
ence of a large gathering of people from the sur- 
rounding country, assembled for the occasion, Fa- 
ther Nerinckx officiated at the ceremony of reli- 
gious profession for Mary Rhodes, Christina Stu- 
art and Nancy Havern, and the corner stone of 
Loretto's foundation was laid. 

On this same day, Ann Rhodes and Sally Hav- 
ern were formally admitted as postulants, and on 
June 29 of the same year they received the veil 
from Father Nerinckx with an appropriate cere- 
mony in St. Charles' Church, at which time Miss 
Nellie Morgan became a postulant. On August 
12 she received the habit and the name of Sister 
Clare, in honor of the saint whose feast it is, while 
the others retained their baptismal names. 

With the reception of the postulants on June 
29 the Community became established. Father 
Nerinckx then called upon the members for a reg- 
ular election of a superior. At this first regular 
election in the Society of Loretto the choice for 
superior fell upon Nancy Rhodes. "You have 
chosen the youngest among you," was the com- 
ment of Father Nerinckx. "If she is the youngest 
she is also the most virtuous," they rejoined, and 
their answer and the spiritual and material ad- 
vance made by the pioneer sisterhood during the 
brief span of time Mother Ann Rhodes governed 
them, proved the wisdom of their choice. 

The Society of Loretto was then formally estab- 
lished as a self-governing body, invested with the 
rights and powers of such an organization, the 
Community at once entered upon its career in the 



SISTERS OF LORETTO 55 

year of its foundation, 1812. At this time Father 
Nerinckx presented them with the Rule drawn 
especially for them. This Rule he afterward am- 
plified and as it came from his hand it was, on its 
presentation in 1816, commended by the Holy See. 

In 1903, as a result of a conference with the 
Most Reverend Archbishop Martinelli, the Sisters 
were directed to submit their Constitution and 
Rule to the Holy See for late examination and 
approval. Accordingly, as soon as necessary pre- 
liminaries could be arranged, the present Mother 
General, Mother Mary Praxedes Carty, with 
Mother Mary Wilfrid La Motte, visited Rome. 
The examination to which the Rule and Consti- 
tution were subjected resulted practically in the 
elimination of the modifications that had been in- 
troduced without warrant during the past, and 
restored them as near to the original Rule drawn 
up by the founder and approved by the Holy See 
in 1816, as the changes in condition of life 
wrought by the vicissitudes of time will permit. 

The Decree of final confirmation of the Rules 
of the Society of Loretto was issued by the Holy 
See on December 30, 1907. 

The object of the Society is two-fold, first — the 
sanctification of its members; and second — their 
neighbor's welfare by means of Christian and 
secular education of youth. 

The special devotion of the Society of the Sis- 
ters of Loretto at the Foot of the Cross, as is their 
characteristic full name, is to the Passion of Our 
Lord Jesus Christ and to the Dolors of His be- 
loved Mother. 

With the growth of the Community during 
these hundred years, the general administration 
of the Society has been vested in the Mother Gen- 



56 SISTERS OF LORETTO 

eral and her Council residing at the Mother-house, 
the title of mother is given to each of these coun- 
cilors. Each of the many branch houses, through- 
out the United States, is presided over by a local 
superior and two assistants. The only Novitiate 
of the Society is at the Mother-house in Loretto, 
Kentucky. 

After the death of their first superior, the Sis- 
ters elected as her successor Sister Mary Rhodes, 
the actual foundress of the Society. For ten 
consecutive years Mother Mary presided over the 
Society beholding its wonderful growth from the 
tiny seed she had planted in the wilderness. 

The necessity of Christian education turned a 
lowly cabin into a schoolroom. From that school 
Divine Providence brought forth Loretto, and 
plainly pointed out teaching — instructing the ig- 
norant — as the special work of the Sisters of Lo- 
retto. In harmony with all His ways God allotted 
to the first native American Institute the highest 
mission, teaching. When occasions demanded the 
Community willingly took up, for as long as 
necessary, special works of mercy — the care of 
the orphan, nursing the sick, the afflicted. 

Careful preparation is a prerequisite for any 
profession, it is doubly important for the Chris- 
tian teacher for whom teaching is a life-work, 
looking forward to no other rank or higher sta- 
tion in this world, the service which claims 
Heaven for reward. 

To prepare her Sisters for this noble work, Lo- 
retto forms them to habits of solid study and close 
application and constancy of purpose. The foun- 
dation for this course is solidly laid in the thor- 
ough religious training given in the novitiate, to 
which the candidate for the religious life is ad- 
mitted after a postulantship covering a period of 




H 

O 

o 

0Q 5 



B 



£ 



SISTERS OF LORETTO 57 

six months, during which time the postulant 
wears a plain black dress and white cap. After 
her term of probation, she receives the holy habit 
and her religious name and enters the novitiate 
for one full year before pronouncing the simple 
vows of Poverty, Chastity and Obedience. These 
vows then are renewed annually for four years; 
at the expiration of the fifth year perpetual vows 
are made. 

At the close of the novitiate term, the young 
religious are required to pass an examination and 
those having the necessary qualifications are 
placed in the training school of the Society. What- 
ever educational advantages the aspirant may 
have had before entering the Society, she is re- 
quired not only to apply herself to the special 
line of studies chosen for her, but to follow a 
course of pedagogical training in the Normal 
School which is connected with Loretto Academy 
in St. Louis. 

Like other teaching congregations, Loretto has 
been unable to meet all the demands made upon 
her for teachers, the many hundreds of Sisters now 
forming the Community are needed for the con- 
tinuance of the special work of the Society of the 
Sisters of Loretto, whose most important institu- 
tions — other than Loretto Academy connected 
with the Mother-house in Loretto, Kentucky — are 
St. Mary's Academy, Denver, Colorado; Loretto 
Academy, St. Louis, and Loretto Academy in 
Kansas City, Missouri. In these, as in her other 
many institutions throughout the States, nothing 
is neglected to facilitate the realization of the 
Christian ideal of education. 



58 THE SISTERS OF CHARITY 



THE SISTERS OF CHARITY OF 

NAZARETH * 

1812 

In the infancy of the Diocese of Bardstown, 
since transferred to Louisville, the Right Rev. 
Benedict Joseph Flaget felt the need of a religious 
Community of women whose influence was in- 
dispensable to train young hearts and to teach 
them the principles of our holy Religion. The 
saintly man "who had grown up in the shadow 
of the sanctuary," had recourse to Jesus in the 
Sacrament of His love. His prayer was heard. 
Inspiration was received. Father J. B. M. David 
was to aid him by founding a local community. 
Meagre indeed was this beginning; but the seed 
was sown when two young women, eager to conse- 
crate their lives to God's service, presented them- 
selves and were received at St. Thomas', about 
four miles south of Bardstown, in the very heart 
of nature. It was here that the Episcopal resi- 
dence, a log house of four rooms, was situated. 
The Bishop and Father David reserved two rooms 
for themselves; the others the Sisters were per- 
mitted to use while the seminarians and willing 
neighbors built for them a separate house near by. 
The site of this rude dwelling, "the cradle of the 
Sisters of Charity of Nazareth" in 1812, is now 
marked by a few stones only. 

The lowly work and simple lives of the early 
members were reminders of the Holy Family's 
mode of living in their obscure home at Naza- 

*Especially prepared by the Sisters of Charity, Nazareth, Kentucky. 




H 



< 


<u 






p 


d 


£ 




<1 


£ 



OF NAZARETH 59 

reth. Spinning, weaving, and the domestic man- 
agement of the seminary were the Sisters' main 
occupation at first. 

A few months later there were six postulants. 
They were sturdy women of strong faith and 
principle, ready to perform any duty pointed out 
to them. Under the careful training of such a 
disciplinarian and so zealous a Priest as Father 
David, they made rapid strides in the religious 
life. They held an election and Mother Catherine 
Spalding was chosen the first Mother Superior of 
Nazareth. This gifted woman, imbued with wis- 
dom, foresight, and a discretion far beyond her 
years, took her place at the helm; by careful 
steering she brought the community safely 
through the numerous dangers that beset it. 
"Trials are ever the portion of the just," and Naz- 
areth had its full share in the early days of its 
existence. Yet these were days of joy and happi- 
ness to the members, who, in the spirit of Christ, 
had gladly embraced a life of poverty, suffering 
and hardships to minister to others, and to be the 
more worthy of following in the footsteps of our 
Divine Saviour, Who has said, "Amen, I say to 
you, as long as you did it to one of these My least 
brethren, you did it to me." 

Bishop Flaget thought the Rule of St. Vincent 
de Paul suitable for the Sisters, therefore it was 
given to them and they were trained in its prac- 
tice by Father David. 

Under the guidance of Sister Ellen O'Connell, 
an efficient teacher of recognized merit, who had 
come from Baltimore, a school for little girls was 
begun in 1814. In a few years Nazareth's fame 
as a school spread rapidly. In 1822, the Commu- 
nity, numbering then twenty-five, moved to its 



60 THE SISTERS OF CHARITY 

present location about two miles and a half north 
of Bardstown. Their place of abode had been the 
home of a Presbyterian preacher. It was small 
and inconvenient for so large a family. But 
what mattered it? — They were content to use it 
until they could better their condition. Nor was 
it long before an opportunity presented itself. 
With a modest dowry brought by Sister Scholas- 
tica O'Connor, the farm on which they were es- 
tablishing themselves had been bought. Board- 
ing pupils came from the southern states. Their 
tuition was paid in advance and the Sisters were 
enabled to erect a substantial convent and acad- 
emy in 1824. Mother Columba Carroll continued 
the work which Sister Ellen O'Connell, her be- 
loved teacher, had begun. The Lord saw fit to call 
to himself, in four short years, the edifying and 
saintly Sister Scholastica. In her brief career this 
excellent religious, who was a gifted musician, 
accomplished much. She prepared the young Sis- 
ters to continue teaching the beautiful art which 
had been introduced by her in the Academy. 

It was when the Community was growing more 
prosperous and feeling the need of larger build- 
ings and better accommodations, that Bishop Da- 
vid gave the Sisters the salutary counsel, "My chil- 
dren, build first a house for your God and He will 
help you to build one for yourselves." The advice 
was heeded and new blessings seemed to be the 
reward of their strong and simple faith. 

After Bishop Flaget had built the Cathedral of 
St. Joseph in Bardstown, he decided to open a 
school. In 1818, three Sisters were engaged to 
teach at Bethlehem Academy, Nazareth's eldest 
daughter. 

The following year, in the midst of a Catholic 



OF NAZARETH 61 

settlement in Union County, began Saint Vincent's 
Academy, often and very appropriately called 
"Little Nazareth" because modeled on the same 
plan as the mother-house. The founding of this 
mission was attended with hardships and priva- 
tions untold. Under like conditions and with sim- 
ilar trials, St. Catherine's Academy, originally in 
Scott County, but now in Lexington, was started. 
Both of these academies are doing excellent work. 

Mother Catherine's name is inseparably linked 
with the pioneer institutions in Louisville, where 
in 1831 she founded the first Catholic school in the 
city — the well-known Presentation Academy. In 
1832-33, the ravages of cholera decimated the pop- 
ulation. The school was closed and the Sisters 
devoted themselves entirely to the care of the sick. 
Many a dying mother entrusted her children to 
the care of Mother Catherine who, like the Divine 
Master, "had compassion" on these little ones and 
took them to her heart and home. By the timely 
and generous assistance of Rev. Robert A. Abell, 
pastor of St. Louis' Church, and with the help of 
some pious ladies, the orphans were removed 
from Presentation Academy to a home provided 
for them on Wenzel and Jefferson streets. This 
became known as St. Vincent's Orphan Asylum. 
The Orphanage is now at Osborne Place; while 
St. Thomas' Orphanage for boys has been re- 
moved from Bardstown to Preston Park, Louis- 
ville. 

The asylum on Wenzel street was the first place 
in Louisville where the sick were received. Soon 
the house was overcrowded and the Sisters 
opened St. Joseph's Infirmary. Owing to the skill 
and self-sacrificing devotion of the Sisters, this in- 
stitution is so well patronized that its extensive 



62 THE SISTERS OF CHARITY 

buildings are inadequate for the numerous appli- 
cations made. 

The Saints Mary and Elizabeth's Hospital had 
its origin in the munificent gift of Mr. William 
Shakespeare Caldwell, for the erection of a me- 
morial to his deceased wife, Mary Elizabeth 
Breckinridge Caldwell, a graduate of Nazareth 
Academy. A superb modern fireproof structure 
was in 1911 added to the main building. This 
splendid hospital, now one of the largest in the 
country, and equipped throughout to meet every 
latest requirement, is open to all persons, irre- 
spective of creed, nationality or means. 

After the Civil War a new era of prosperity 
dawned on Nazareth. This is shown by the large 
number of missions founded in various parts of 
the country. Higher education received an im- 
petus; more comprehensive academic courses 
were added. At present the principal academies 
in Kentucky are: St. Vincent's, Union County; St. 
Catherine's, Lexington; Presentation, Louisville; 
Immaculata, Newport; LaSalette, Covington; St. 
Mary's, Paducah; and St. Frances', Owensboro. As 
branch houses, under the charter granted "The 
Nazareth Literary and Benevolent Institution" by 
the State Legislature, in 1829, they are empowered 
to confer diplomas upon the young ladies who 
complete the prescribed course of study. The sub- 
jects taught are carefully selected for the culture 
of mind and heart. 

The marked success of the Community is due in 
great measure to the executive ability of the Su- 
periors who have governed wisely and well. 
Mother Catherine and Mother Frances Gardiner, 
with prudence and marvelous foresight, laid firm 
and strong the foundation, — Mother Columbia 




MOTHER CATHERINE SPALDING 



First Mother Superior of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, 
Nazareth, Kentucky. 



VISITATION NUNS 65 

good will and in a permanent institution the spir- 
itual method dear to him; to reach God chiefly 
through interior mortification and to endeavor to 
do in every action only the Divine Will with the 
greatest possible love. 

At first the saintly founder had not a religious 
Order in mind; he wished to form a congregation 
without external vows, where the cloister should 
be observed only during the year of novitiate; 
after which the Sisters should be free to go out 
by turns to visit the sick poor. However, what 
he desired above all, was the contemplative life 
for the members; the addition of the visitation of 
the sick was merely by way of devotion. 

The institute was begun on Trinity Sunday, 
June 6, 1610. The Baronne de Chantal, a pious 
widow, native of Burgundy, was destined to be- 
come the co-foundress of the institute and was the 
first Superior. 

When, in 1615, the establishment was an accom- 
plished fact, St. Francis yielded to the persuasions 
of the Archbishop of Lyons and erected the con- 
gregation into a Religious Order under the Rule 
of St. Augustine, with the -cloister imposed by the 
Council of Trent. The founder then opened the 
door of the monastery to all of good will. No 
severity, however great, could prevent the weak 
and infirm from coming "there to seek the perfec- 
tion of Divine Love." St. Francis expressly or- 
dered the reception at the Visitation, not only of 
virgins but also widows, on condition that they 
were legitimately freed from the care of their chil- 
dren; the aged, provided they were of right mind; 
the crippled, provided they were sound in mind 
and heart; even the sick, except those who had 
contagious diseases. 

5 



66 VISITATION NUNS 

Austerities of the cloister were suppressed, but 
the wise legislator was carefulto give to interior 
mortification what he withdrew from exterior 
mortification. 

There are three grades among the Sisters: the 
Choir Sisters who sing the Office; the Associate 
Sisters, dispensed from the Office because of their 
health, but in other respects the same as the Choir 
Sisters; and finally the Lay Sisters, who wear a 
white veil instead of the black, as worn by the 
other Sisters. The Lay Sisters are engaged in do- 
mestic tasks; they have no voice in the Chapter, 
but they make the same vows and are as much 
religious as the others. The communities are 
cloistered; the "out-door Sisters," who make pub- 
licly only the vow of obedience, are charged with 
the external service of the house. 

Each Convent is governed by a Superior whom 
all the Sisters elect by secret ballot. She is chosen 
for three years, at the end of which time she is 
eligible for election for another term of three 
years. When this time is ended she is ineligible 
for the subsequent term. A Council of four other 
Sisters assists her in the government of the house. 
An assistant replaces her when it is necessary. 

All the houses of the Order are independent of 
one another. Circulars sent from time to time 
keep all acquainted with the events of each Con- 
vent. There is no Superior General, no visitor- 
general nor general chapter. In doubts regarding 
observance of Rules, recourse is had to the house 
of Annecy, the sainte-source, which actually exer- 
cises no authority, but whose right to advise is 
recognized as that of an elder sister. The first 
Superior of each Convent is the bishop of the 
diocese and it is under his direct and immediate 
care. 




n 

En 
O 



VISITATION NUNS 67 

The Order of the Visitation of Mary was canon- 
ically erected in 1618 by Paul V., who granted it 
all the privileges enjoyed by other Orders. A 
Bull of Urban VIII. solemnly approved it in 1626. 

In the Seventeenth century the Order was con- 
fined to France and especially to Savoy; in the 
Eighteenth century it extended to Italy, Germany, 
Spain, Switzerland, Poland and the Low Coun- 
tries. There were 167 Visitation Convents in 
France when the bloody Revolution at the end 
of the century closed all the houses it reached. 
The foreign houses, however, retained the tradi- 
tions of the founders. The storm passed, and as 
early as 1800 the Convents of the Order began 
gradually to be restored in all parts of France. 
That of Annecy was not restored until 1824. 

In the year 1797, there arrived in the United 
States, from Ireland, Miss Alice Lalor, born in 
Queen's County about the year 1766. Alice was 
brought up at Kilkenny, whither her family re- 
moved during her early childhood. Having long 
desired to enter the religious life, Miss Lalor, in 
coming to this country, did so with the intention 
of soon returning to Ireland for that purpose. 
However, during her residence in Philadelphia 
she confided her desires to the Rev. Leonard 
Neale, who had become her spiritual director. 

The establishment in Philadelphia of a reli- 
gious Community of women had long been the 
wish of Father Neale. He therefore showed Miss 
Lalor that America needed her services far more 
than Ireland. 

Imbued with his zeal and obedient to his coun- 
sels, Alice Lalor and two other ladies who were 
also animated by a desire for the religious life 
opened an Academy for the instruction of young 



68 VISITATION NUNS 

girls. Before their institution had been solidly es- 
tablished, Miss Lalor's two companions became 
victims of the yellow fever. The project of a 
community in Philadelphia was thus defeated. 

In 1799, at the request of Bishop Carroll, Father 
Neale left Philadelphia and assumed the presi- 
dency of Georgetown College in Washington, D. 
C. In the year 1800 Father Neale was consecrated 
Bishop but remained president of Georgetown un- 
til 1806. 

About this same time Miss Lalor, with a com- 
panion, also went to Washington and here they be- 
came teachers in the Academy of the Poor Clares. 
As the Poor Clares were evidently not to remain 
in this country, Bishop Neale advised Miss Lalor 
to open a school independently. A third lady from 
Philadelphia soon joined Miss Lalor; with a por- 
tion of the dowry brought by the newcomer a 
house which stood on the grounds of the present 
convent was purchased for a new school. 

These pious ladies had as yet no rule, except 
the temporary one given by their director. He 
was greatly in favor of the Rule of the Visitation 
founded under the guidance of St. Francis de 
Sales. Bishop Neale endeavored to obtain a few 
Visitation Nuns from Europe to found a commu- 
nity in America and to form his penitents to the 
spirit and practice of the rule of the holy Bishop 
of Geneva, but he failed in every attempt to se- 
cure this help. 

In the library of the Poor Clares was found a 
copy of the Visitation Rule of St. Francis de Sales. 
The perusal of the Rules and Constitutions con- 
firmed Miss Lalor and her associates, as well as 
their director, in the wish to adopt it. 

In the Spring of 1808, Bishop Carroll advised 






VISITATION NUNS 69 

Bishop Neale to allow his zealous penitents to 
make the simple vows as prescribed in the Rule 
of the Visitation Nuns, but it was not until 1813 
that Bishop Neale permitted them* to make their 
simple vows of religion, these to be renewed an- 
nually. When he succeeded to the See of the 
Archdiocese of Baltimore, in 1815, Archbishop 
Neale applied to the Holy Father for power to 
erect the Community into a religious house of the 
Order of the Visitation, with all the rights and 
privileges enjoyed by other Monasteries of the 
Rule. 

On December 28, 1816, Archbishop Neale re- 
ceived the solemn profession of the religious 
vows of Miss Lalor, Mrs. McDermott and Miss 
Harriet Brent; the remaining thirty- three of the 
new Community took their vows on the feast of 
St. Francis de Sales, January 29, 1817. 

The Poor Clares having returned to Europe, the 
now established Community of the Visitandines 
continued their religious life in the property at 
Georgetown, purchased from the French nuns. 

While the Visitandines are contemplatives, the 
needs in Europe led many of the Convents there 
to open, within their cloisters, boarding schools 
for young ladies ; thus it is that the now thorough- 
ly organized American Institute of the Visitation 
Nuns could pursue their work of education in 
the school which they had opened in Georgetown, 
in the year 1800, and which today is one of the 
world-famed Convent Schools in the United 
States. 

Following the official organization of the Visita- 
tion Nuns in the United States, Convents of this 
Order have been established in many of the larg- 
est cities of this country, and in America today — 



70 SISTERS OF CHARITY 

as in Europe for more than three centuries — the 
Visitation has never stood in need of reform and 
each century has brought to the Church and the 
world its contingent of holy souls. 



SISTERS OF CHARITY OF MT. 
ST. VINCENT, N. Y. * 

1817 

Less than a decade of years had been spent by 
the Community of Sisters of Charity at Emmits- 
burg, Maryland, when Mother Seton had the inex- 
pressible joy and consolation of sending to New 
York, at the earnest entreaty of Bishop Connelly, 
a little band of Sisters to care for the orphans of 
that diocese. 

Prayerfully and with care was the selection 
made of Sisters for the establishment of this foun- 
dation. A little sapling was then planted, which 
today is a mighty tree whose branches shelter the 
young and the old, the rich and the poor, the sick, 
the suffering, the forsaken. 

Mother Seton and her Council finally decided 
that Sister Rose White, who had shown much 
prudence and discretion as the head of the Phila- 
delphia Mission, should take charge of that in 
New York where the much needed orphan asy- 
lum was being organized by the Catholic people. 

On June 28, 1817, Sister Rose White and three 
companion Sisters arrived in New York City and 
took up their abode in a residence on Mott Street. 
They at onqe assumed charge of the orphans 



*Especially prepared from material furnished by the Sisters of 
Charity, Mt. St. Vincent-on-the-Hudson, New York City, N. Y. 




MOTHER SETON 



OF MT. ST. VINCENT 71 

ready for their care. Following the death of the 
saintly foundress, Mother Seton, in 1821, Mother 
Rose White was called to Emmitsburg to assume 
the duties of Superior. Sister Elizabeth Boyle, 
who was to be identified with New York for so 
many years, was transferred from the Philadel- 
phia Mission to New York, arriving there on 
Christmas Eve, 1822. She continued to direct the 
orphan asylum, which was then on Prince Street, 
until the year 1846, when she was sent to Roches- 
ter to found a Mission in that city. 

In 1846, Father Louis Deluol, Directing Su- 
perior of the Sisters of Charity, notified the bish- 
ops in whose dioceses the Sisters were conduct- 
ing asylums for boys, that they would no longer 
be allowed to take charge of these asylums. Bish- 
op Hughes of New York objected to this. After 
much correspondence with Father Deluol it was 
arranged to form a new Mother-house for the Sis- 
ters of Charity in New York. Dispensation from 
their vow of obedience to their former Superior 
was given to the Sisters in New York who were 
disposed to remain there. Hard as it was to 
break the ties which held them to their Mother 
Community, the great maxim of St. Vincent 
"Never to abandon one good work under the pre- 
tense of undertaking new ones" and the silent 
moving appeal of the children plead eloquently 
for the sacrifice. 

Time was given the Sisters in which to consider 
the matter, but they were wisely forbidden to seek 
counsel of one another. There was little hesitation 
on their part, for of the forty-five Sisters in New 
York, thirty-five remained. 

Sister Elizabeth, than whom no one had been 
more closely united to Mother Seton, or, as As- 



72 SISTERS OF CHARITY 

sistant Superior, more identified with Emmits- 
burg, never had the slightest doubt but that it was 
the Will of God that she should remain to labor 
in the place whither God had called her. 

The first election of the New York Community 
was held December 8, 1846. Sister Elizabeth was 
chosen Mother and Sister Mary Angela, — a sister 
of Bishop Hughes, — was chosen Assistant-Mother. 
The Novitiate of the New York Community was 
then regularly opened, at 35 East Broadway, 
where the Sisters conducted a Girls' School. In 
1847, a site for a Mother-house and Academy was 
bought, some miles from the city, in what was 
known as McGowan's Pass. 

Mother Elizabeth governed her daughters in the 
true spirit of Mother Seton, with firmness, tender- 
ness, and with humility, and exemplified in her 
own life the virtues of a true Sister of Charity. 

The New York Community house was enlarged 
to meet the needs of the growing Community. In 
1847, an Academy was opened for boarding pupils 
and forty were at once received. 

In 1849, the Emmitsburg Community was affili- 
ated to the Community of Daughters of Charity 
in France, and passed under the authority of the 
Superior-General of that order, assuming the garb 
of the French Sisterhood, their head-dress being 
the celebrated white linen cornette, as given by St. 
Vincent de Paul. 

The Sisters of Charity of New York retain, with 
slight modification, the habit proposed by Mother 
Seton, which consists of a black dress with a short 
cape and a neat black cap with a crimped border. 

The Novices, however, wear a brown dress, the 
origin of which dates from the earliest days of the 
Sisters at Emmitsburg, when in 1811, the widow 



OF MT. ST. VINCENT 73 

of a West Indian planter left Martinique for the 
double purpose of accompanying her sister to St. 
Joseph's, whose Community the lady was to enter, 
and to place her son at ML St. Mary's College. 
The voyage was a terrific one, owing to the vio- 
lent and constant storms; Madame Guerin, fearful 
of ship-wreck, made a vow to wear a brown dress, 
for three months, if they reached their destination 
in safety. However absurd this vow may seem 
now, in those days brown was far from possess- 
ing the status it since holds among fashionable 
colors; being regarded as a hue fit only for me- 
nials or penitents, for Madame Guerin to assume 
it was no small act of self-denial and humility. 
On her safe arrival at Emmitsburg, having placed 
her son at college, she became herself a boarder 
there at St. Joseph's, where she wore her brown 
attire in fulfillment of her vow. Before this was 
accomplished, Madame Guerin became imbued 
with the religious life and petitioned for admis- 
sion into the Community. Not only was she ac- 
cepted, but it was decided to adopt her brown 
garb as the habit for the novices. The custom 
thus begun, still continues in the Mt. St. Vincent 
Community, w T here the novices are often spoken 
of as "the brown sisters." 

For more than ten years, the Sisters in New 
York remained in the home they had established, 
when the city required the property as part of its 
new Central Park. The Sisters then were com- 
pelled to seek another location. A beautiful es- 
tate, situated about ten miles to the northward, 
in Westchester County, on the shore of the Hud- 
son, was secured for the new Mt. St. Vincent, as- 
the home of the Sisters was called. 

A Norman castle, built on the estate by the 



74 SISTERS OF CHARITY 

late owner, Edwin Forrest, the noted tragedian, 
still remains in use, a picturesque addition to the 
"Mount." In 1859, the Sisters moved into the new 
building erected for the housing of both the Com- 
munity and Academy. The influence of Mother 
Seton, whose educational ideas and methods en- 
title her to a high place among the advocates and 
promoters of higher education for girls, was ap- 
parent in the school, which soon became so noted 
for its excellence that pupils came to it from the 
North and South, the East and the West. 

The school grew very rapidly, and in 1865 a 
large wing was added to the main building of Mt. 
St. Vincent. In 1884, a corresponding wing was 
added to give room for the overflowing novitiate 
and the training school where the young daugh- 
ters of St. Vincent are ever being prepared for 
what Archbishop Carroll prophesied would be 
their chief work in this country — the imparting of 
a Christian education to the young. 

From the very first the New York Community 
increased rapidly and continually put forth new 
branches. In 1849, St. Vincent's Hospital was 
opened in New York City, under the direction of 
Sister Angela Hughes, and from a most humble 
beginning expanded into the vast establishment it 
is today. Homes for the Aged and the Friend- 
less followed, numerous parish schools were 
opened and academies established in New York 
and other cities; a Foundling Asylum was erected 
and Seton Hospital — for victims of the great white 
plague — was opened. 

While the Mt. St. Vincent Sisters of Charity 
have established houses in many neighboring dio- 
ceses, it is with the city of New York that they 
are chiefly identified, coming to it, few and poor, 




H 
H 

O m 

t-t 

° g 

w +^ 

H GQ 

Xfl 

O c 



OF MT. ST. VINCENT 75 

when it was little more than a provincial town; 
they have grown with its growth, until now when 
it has become an imperial city, they have a chain 
of houses throughout its vast expanse, from its 
extreme southern end, where, amid the roar and 
bustle of commerce, their school and dwelling 
rise under the shadow of St. Peter's Church — the 
cradle of Catholicism in New York, — to its north- 
ernmost limit where the great Mother-house— 
beautiful Mount St. Vincent — lifts high above the 
waters of the Hudson, the statue of the benign 
Saint whose name it bears. 

Thus, in the city, where more than a century 
ago, Elizabeth Seton dwelt, friendless and desert- 
ed, and which she quitted with her little children, 
with scarcely one to bid her God-speed, she is to- 
day represented by hundreds of beloved black- 
robed daughters. 



RELIGIOUS OF THE SACRED 
HEART * 

1818 

In the little village of Joigny, in Burgundy, 
Sophie Madeleine Barat was born, December 12, 
1779, destined as she was to accomplish one of 
the greatest works a woman ever did in her life- 
time, to behold with her own eyes its wonderful 
extension, and fifteen years only after her death 
to receive the title Venerable, her whole life — 
from the beginning to the end — is evidence of the 
slow, unremitting and sure work of Providence. 

*Especially prepared from "The Life of the Venerable Madeleine 
Barat," and from other references furnished by the Religious of the 
Sacred Heart, Kenwood, Albany, New York. 



76 RELIGIOUS OF THE SACRED HEART 

Sophie Barat, from earliest infancy, manifested 
exceptional gifts and qualities of heart and mind. 
Educated under the special tutelage of her 
brother, Father Louis Barat, it was not long be- 
fore he discovered that his sister had a very 
marked vocation for the religious life. At the 
age of twenty years she realized that she was 
called to serve God in such a way, but she did not 
see, in France, any religious institute that fully 
satisfied her aspirations. 

Two different attractions seemed to be strug- 
gling in her heart. The active and the contem- 
plative life, great as is the difference between 
them, appeared equally holy and useful to the fu- 
ture foundress of the Society of the Sacred Heart, 
but she could not discern as yet which of these 
lives her Lord was calling her to embrace. She 
did not know that Providence intended her to 
combine both in a new Institute, the idea of which 
God had revealed to one of His anointed ser- 
vants. About the month of July, in the year 1800, 
Father Barat spoke of his sister to the saintly 
Father Varin. A light seemed given to this holy 
man which later decided the vocation of Sophie 
Barat. 

Father Leonor de Tournely had been elected 
Superior of a new congregation called the Society 
of the Sacred Heart. In this society Father Varin 
was ordained priest at Augsburg. Driven by the 
progress of the French invasion from Augsburg to 
Passau, from Passau to Vienna, from Vienna to 
Hagenbrunn, the little colony of zealous priests, 
poor and persecuted, increased every day in num- 
bers and in fervor. It was then that God began 
to open a new work to their faith. 

It was not enough for their priestly zeal to labor 



RELIGIOUS OF THE SACRED HEART 77 

at reviving religion amongst men; women also, 
the mothers of families, Christian wives, virtuous 
young girls, were to bear a considerable share, 
greater than ever, in the renovation of society. 
With this intention Father Leonor de Tournely 
was inspired to found, in the same manner, and 
almost on the same plan as his society of men, a 
society of women, consecrated to the instruction 
of the children, not only of the poor, but of the 
wealthy and influential classes, to be devoted to 
the Heart of Jesus, to revive His love in the souls 
and the light of His doctrine in the minds of 
Christians, to borrow, as it were, the sentiments 
and interior inclinations of the Divine Heart, and 
to impart them to others by means of education. 
Such was to be the object and the spirit of the 
order of women which Father de Tournely had 
in view, and it was to bear, as well as the society 
of men he had founded, the name of the Sacred 
Heart of Jesus. 

And such a society does indeed exist, but it was 
not to be founded in the lifetime of Father de 
Tournely. He had been inspired with the idea of 
this great work; but the task of elaborating and 
establishing it was committed to another. He 
prepared the way for its success but died without 
seeing the fulfillment of his desire. His plans 
were adopted and carried into execution by Fa- 
ther Varin, who had been elected Superior in his 
place. Wherever he went, this worthy successor 
of Father de Tournely was on the watch to dis- 
cover the person who was destined to be the foun- 
dress of the Society of the Sacred Heart. 

When Father Barat confided to his friend and 
Superior his concern for the vocation of his "lit- 
tle sister," Father Varin was attracted by his 



78 RELIGIOUS OF THE SACRED HEART 

words and asked her age and ability. Father 
Barat replied that she was between nineteen and 
twenty, that she had learned Latin and Greek, 
could fluently translate Virgil and Homer, and 
had capacity enough to make a good rhetorician; 
that she thought of soon entering a convent, per- 
haps as a Carmelite, but that she was then with 
(her family. 

The fact of the existence of this sister, and at 
the same time spiritual daughter and pupil, of a 
man well qualified to judge of a person's virtue 
and talents, the classical education she had re- 
ceived, the humble condition, religious vocation, 
and, moreover, the age of this young girl, which 
was exactly that at which the mind is most sus- 
ceptible of being molded and directed; all com- 
bined to make a strong impression on Father Va- 
rin, and when Mdlle. Barat on her return to Paris 
was introduced to him his previsions were real- 
ized. The presentiment he had felt the first time 
that her brother had spoken of her became 
stronger and more decided. Father Varin related 
that he could not help mentally exclaiming: 
"What a foundation stone she will be!" And she 
did indeed prove to be the stone on which God 
had chosen to build the Society of the Sacred 
Heart. 

Father Varin communicated to Sophie's brother 
his views as to her vocation, and his own plans 
for the establishment of this society for women. 
Father Barat then entered into these plans with 
the deepest thankfulness. When Sophie learned 
of Father Varin's hopes and plans, though they 
tallied with some of her own desires, she hesi- 
tated, her incapacity alarming her. But there was 
little room for thought or doubt on the subject. 




BLESSED MADELEINE SOPHIE BARAT 

Foundress of the Society of the Sacred Heart, Beatified by His Holiness 

Pius X, May 24, 1908 



RELIGIOUS OF THE SACRED HEART 79 

Sophie's whole life had visibly tended to this end 
and she received from her director such strong 
assurance as to her vocation, that she entered into 
his plans with generous self-devotion, and with 
that absolute reliance on God which was to be- 
come more and more the essence, as it were, of 
her spiritual life. 

It was in the humble home of Madame Duval 
that the„ real foundations were laid, of the So- 
ciety of the Sacred Heart. Here Sophie and the 
zealous souls who, under the direction of Father 
Varin, had joined her, now lived a community 
life. On November 21, 1800— the feast of the Pres- 
entation of the Blessed Virgin — they were allowed 
to make their vows of consecration to God. This 
feast therefore is still looked upon and solem- 
nized by the Society of the Sacred Heart, as the 
date of its foundation. 

The Society of the Sacred Heart was now con- 
stituted. It remained to be seen where and when 
Providence intended its first establishment to take 
place. On October 15, 1801 — the feast of Saint 
Teresa — the first convent was established at 
Amiens. It is difficult to imagine anything more 
humble or poor than this first foundation. The 
building where the Society of the Sacred Heart 
was first established was situated in the Rue St. 
Martin-Bleu-Dieu. It was a small private house, 
the ground floor of which was arranged so as to 
form the school-rooms, above were the dormito- 
ries and the little chapel. This first year of active 
life was a happy year for the little Society. A 
free school was opened for the children of the 
poor and was numerously attended. Nothing 
could be more in accordance with the spirit of 
the new institute than such a work of charity, and 



80 RELIGIOUS OF THE SACRED HEART 

this work has been continued and flourishes in 
all the houses of the Sacred Heart since estab- 
lished. 

On December 21, Mother Barat was nominated 
Superior of the new Community. On September 
29, 1804, the Society removed to a new house in 
Amiens. This was followed by the establishment 
of a community novitiate in Grenoble. 

In Grenoble, some thirty-five years before, Phil- 
ippine Duchesne had been born — one of those 
women to whom nature gives strength of charac- 
ter, an indomitable will, and a restless activity, 
which grace converts into the spirit of self-sacri- 
fice, of ardent apostleship, of unbounded zeal. She 
belonged to a clever and energetic family, her 
father had been conspicuous in the early days of 
the Revolution, the famous statesman, Casimir 
Perier, was her near relative. 

Like Mother Barat, she had received a superior 
education, and shared all the studies of her broth- 
ers and her cousins, but the ardor with which she 
studied arose from her settled resolution to em- 
brace the religious life, and to consecrate every 
talent she possessed to the service of God. She 
had been brought up at the Convent of the Visita- 
tion of Sainte Marie-d'en-Haut, the secluded home 
on a height above Grenoble, where St. Jane Fran- 
ces de Chantal had established her daughters 
more than two hundred years before. And there 
she insisted on returning as a novice as soon as 
she could dispose of her own liberty. But before 
the time came for her vows to be made the Revo- 
lution drove her from the cloister, though without 
changing her determined purpose. To God she 
would belong, for His poor she would work ! With 
a few friends worthy of being her companions, 



RELIGIOUS OF THE SACRED HEART 81 

she penetrated, during that Reign of Terror, into 
crowded prisons, relieved the poor, visited the 
sick and instructed the children. 

Two distinct attractions divided the heart of 
this servant of God. When a child, she once heard 
a Jesuit Father, just arrived from Louisiana, re- 
late the details of his r missionary labors, and from 
that time forward she had felt a burning desire of 
apostleship. On the other hand, she pined for her 
dear Convent of Sainte Marie, which had been 
converted into a prison during the days of Terror, 
and afterwards remained a dismal solitude until 
visited by Mother Bar at who realized that it would 
be most difficult to find a more appropriate house 
for her Society and secured it for that purpose. 

Upon the establishment of the Society of the 
Sacred Heart at Sainte Marie-d'en-Haut, Mdlle. 
Duchesne was, in 1804, received into the com- 
munity. 

In 1806, Mother Barat was elected Superior 
General of the now flourishing Society. In April 
of the year 1807, Mother Barat left the Institute 
of her Society in Poitiers for Paris, where the 
affairs of the Society required her presence. On 
her arrival, she was apprised of the decree, signed 
in the Camp of Osterode by Napoleon L, on the 
10th of March, 1807, by which her Institute was 
formally approved for the whole of the French 
Empire. 

In September of 1808, Mother Barat was again 
in Grenoble. There she found Mother Duchesne 
plunged in good works, which, however, did not 
beguile her ardent soul from its absorbing desire, 
the foreign missions. Her anxiety to be one of 
the first band of missionaries sent out by the Sa- 
cred Heart to the New World was intense. Mother 



82 RELIGIOUS OF THE SACRED HEART 

Barat entered with eagerness into this special vo- 
cation of her spiritual daughter, but the hour had 
not yet come for the fulfillment of Mother Du- 
chesne's hopes. 

In 1815, Mother Barat invited the Superiors and 
the Assistants of all the communities of the So- 
ciety to assemble at a General Council, where the 
Constitutions of the Congregation would be sub- 
mitted to their examination. The feast of All 
Saints was fixed for the opening of the Council. 

The summons was faithfully obeyed by the Su- 
periors of the different houses. Mother Barat as 
Mother General, presided over the meetings, at 
which Father Varin assisted, and also Father Ju- 
lian Druilhet, who had helped to compile the 
Rules, and who always remained one of the most 
faithful supporters of the Society. 

The work presented by the two Fathers was en- 
tirely new, no other plan or idea entering it than 
that for which the Society had been founded, that 
of consecrating itself to the glory of the Sacred 
Heart of Jesus. 

It is thus a mixed Order which unites the spirit 
of "the contemplative with some of the works of 
the active Orders. An inclosed one, in so much that 
the nuns do not go out of their own houses, but 
the grating is dispensed with, in order that they 
may labor more freely for the salvation of their 
neighbor, while preserving the holy recollection 
which unites them with God. 

The Institute establishes two classes of reli- 
gious, one under the name of Lay sisters, especial- 
ly employed in manual work, the others bearing 
the title of Choir Nuns, who apply themselves to 
the recitation of the Office in common, to the ad- 
ministration of the house, or the work of educa- 



RELIGIOUS OF THE SACRED HEART 83 

tion. The first imitate in Jesus Christ His obscure 
labors at Nazareth, the others carry on His work of 
adoration and preaching; but both these classes 
are, like Martha and Mary, true sisters of the same 
family. All are bound by the three vows of pov- 
erty, chastity and obedience, to which the re- 
ligious who teach add another, that of consecrat- 
ing themselves to the education of youth. 

Regarding the choice of subjects suitable for 
admission into the Society of the Sacred Heart, 
the Constitutions do not require fortune or high 
birth, as conditions of admittance. It is enough, 
as far as outward circumstances are concerned, 
"that her family should be respectable, her own 
reputation unblemished, her exterior unobjec- 
tionable, and her health good." She must also be 
gifted with "an upright mind, sound judgment, a 
pliable and docile disposition, knowledge and at 
least the promise of talents, and aptitude for the 
acquirement of whatever is wanting to her edu- 
cation." "If she has a pure and upright intention 
of glorifying the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and a gen- 
erous desire to give herself to Him in simplicity 
and obedience, she is admitted; and her desire 
bears the mark of a true vocation." 

The postulantship for those who wish to be 
Choir religious is of three months' duration, and 
six months for the Lay sisters. The noviceship 
lasts two years, Choir religious make their final 
vows about five years after the first vows made at 
the close of the noviceship, and Lay sisters ten 
years after their ceremony of clothing. 

Following the completion of the work of the 
Council, the Councillors left Paris at the begin- 
ning of 1816, and soon the Mother General heard 
that all the houses of the Society received the 



84 RELIGIOUS OF THE SACRED HEART 

Rules as if directly from God, and moreover that 
they had been given the most complete approba- 
tion of several diocesan bishops. 

On January 14, 1817, Monseigneur Dubourg, 
Rishop of Louisiana, who was then in Paris, 
called upon Mother Rarat. In his conversation 
the Rishop spoke of America and his diocese, and 
of how glad he would be to have an establish- 
ment of the Society of the Sacred Heart there. 
Mother Rarat then told him of zealous Mother 
Duchesne. The Rishop then asked to meet her. 
Ref ore the departure of the Rishop from Paris 
he had Mother Rarat's promise of an early Amer- 
ican establishment of her Society. On March 21, 
1818, a little colony of Sacred Heart Nuns, with 
Mother Duchesne in charge as Superior of the 
American Mission, sailed from Royan. On May 
29th, they landed in New Orleans. 

Then began that long course of patient endur- 
ance, of delay, of acceptance of hardship, of suf- 
fering sweetened by joys, not to be even conceived 
by those who have not studied the lives of the 
saints, which attended the first years spent in 
America by Mother Rarat's brave and devoted 
daughters. Their history, with all its vicissitudes, 
their trials and disappointments, the hardships of 
those foundations in solitary regions, amidst 
primeval forests, amongst hostile or indifferent 
populations, the gradual advance of the work 
which was destined to take such deep root and 
extend itself far and wide in the New World can- 
not be related here. 

At the very outset of their apostolic life in 
America, Mother Rarat conveyed to the mission- 
ary Sisters the strongest encouragement they 
could receive, the words with which the Sover- 




m re 

r G 
O « 



O * 



O 

i— i 

i 



RELIGIOUS OF THE SACRED HEART 85 

eign Pontiff Pius VII. had blessed the new mis- 
sion of the Sacred Heart and wished them the 
most prosperous success, in token of which he 
gave his blessing, not only to those already gone, 
but to all those who would prepare themselves 
to follow them some day. 

Upon arriving in the United States, Mother Du- 
chesne and her companions continued their jour- 
ney, sailing up the Mississippi to Saint Louis and 
finally making their first American foundation at 
Saint Charles, Missouri. Following the establish- 
ment of this foundation at St. Charles, founda- 
tions were made at Florrisant, Mo., at Grand C6- 
teau, in New Orleans, and in 1827 the Convent in 
St. Louis was opened. 

One of the first pupils at the Convent at Grand 
Coteau, was Mary Aloysia Hardy, of a distin- 
guished Maryland family that had emigrated to 
Louisiana. In 1825, at the age of sixteen years, 
this pupil — who was destined to become the guid- 
ing spirit of the Sacred Heart in the two Americas 
— entered the novitiate of the Society. 

In Europe, the Society continued to flourish, in 
December of 1826 the decree of the approbation 
of the Holy See was conferred on the now fully 
organized Society. That same year, at the Con- 
vent in Metz, the holy habit was given to Eliza- 
beth Galitzen, a Russian princess born in 1797. In 
1839 Madame Galitzen was elected Assistant Gen- 
eral of the Society and named Visitor of the Con- 
vents in the United States. 

In the year 1841, Bishop Hughes of New York, 
anxious for the spiritual improvement of his dio- 
cese, sought an order of women trained to give 
the highest possible education. He deemed the 
Ladies of the Sacred Heart best fitted to realize 



86 RELIGIOUS OF THE SACRED HEART 

his object; and under the guidance of Mother Ga- 
litzen, then in the United States, Mother Hardy 
and several other members of the community ar- 
rived in New York, May 6, 1.841, and soon estab- 
lished their Convent in a large house at the corner 
of Houston and Mulberry streets. The educational 
advantages afforded by the Academy at once 
opened by the new community, made it extremely 
popular among the more wealthy Catholic fam- 
ilies of New York. 

After various changes of residence, according 
to the demands for buildings more suitable for 
the increased needs of their growing community 
and school, the Society secured, in 1846, the beau- 
tifully situated Lorillard property, at Manhattan- 
ville in New York City, where for more than half 
a century many of the fairest daughters of our 
land have not only been educated in the Arts and 
Sciences, but where into their lives have been in- 
stilled such active principles of religion and right 
living that make the noblest Christian woman. 

Since the establishment of the Society in New 
York City, other Eastern foundations were made 
by Mother Hardy; the hardships and perplexities 
entailed on her in the establishment of these foun- 
dations are hard to realize in these days when 
traveling is so easy and the means for the same 
so plentiful. Mother Hardy's greatest concern, 
however, was not the erection of convents, but 
the foundation of fervent religious as consecrated 
teachers. 

In November, 1853, Mother Duchesne died at St. 
Charles, Mo., her last days having been spent in 
the Convent where, nearly thirty-five years before, 
she had first planted on American soil the seed 
of the Society of the Sacred Heart. In 1871 Moth- 



RELIGIOUS OF THE SACRED HEART 87 

er Hardy, having been appointed Assistant Gen- 
eral of the Society, left America to assume the 
duties of her office, these duties requiring her resi- 
dence at the Mother-house in France. Mother 
Hardy returned to the United States several times 
on official visits before her saintly death in Paris 
in 1885. In 1905 her remains were removed to 
this country, and interred at Kenwood, Albany, 
N. Y., the present General Novitiate of the Society 
in North America. 

With the recent oppression of religious orders 
in France, the Society of the Sacred Heart was 
forced to give up 47 of its convents there in its 
native country. In 1909 the Mother-house in Paris 
was removed to Ixelles, Brussels, Belgium, the re- 
ligious from the many houses in France were 
transferred to the various houses of the Institute 
now in almost every European country, in North 
America, in South America, in the West Indies 
and even in Australia. 

There are at present nearly 6,500 members in 
the Society, all under the general jurisdiction of 
the Mother-house in Belgium, presided over by 
the Superior General of the Society — elected for 
life. Besides the Superior General, the Society is 
governed by the Assistants General and Superiors 
Vicars. The Assistants General are elected for 
six years, the Superiors Vicars and local Supe- 
riors are nominated by the Mother General and 
may be changed at her direction; however their 
usual term of government is three years. 

In all the Convents of the Sacred Heart, the 
same rules, customs and establishments of the So- 
ciety are zealously and equally cherished by the 
pupils as well as by the religious. 

About the year 1832 Ven. Mother Barat estab- 



88 RELIGIOUS OF THE SACRED HEART 

lished the Congregation of the Children of Mary 
for the former pupils of the Sacred Heart, organ- 
ized "to assist young girls and young women in 
the world to persevere in faith, piety, charity and 
Christian modesty; to encourage them in the per- 
formance of the duties of their condition, to se- 
cure for them spiritual assistance amidst the dif- 
ficulties and consolation under the sorrows of 
life." Such was the object of this institution, now 
one of the foremost organizations of women in 
the Catholic Church. Wherever there is a Con- 
vent of the Sacred Heart, there we find the Asso- 
ciation of the "Children of Mary of the World" 
and amongst those composing these associations 
are many of the most distinguished women in the 
world who welcome the meetings at their con- 
vent homes, the annual retreats and the continu- 
ance of that religious molding influence of their 
lives. 

In New York, the Children of Mary, meeting at 
Manhattanville, are responsible for the inception 
of what is known in New York as the Barat Settle- 
ment, — the members of the Association personally 
assist the Fathers of the Jesuit Italian Mission in 
their work. The Settlement is governed by a Board 
of Directors composed of Children of Mary belong- 
ing to the three Convents of the Sacred Heart in 
New York. The Association, from the personal con- 
tributions of the members, defrays the expenses of 
a resident matron and other necessary workers. 
The classes, etc., are taught by voluntary workers 
of the Association who therefore feel responsible 
for the classes, and who are thus kept in constant 
touch with the work at the Settlement. 

Kindergartens, Domestic Science Courses, Day- 
Nurseries, and other such modern institutions are 



DOMINICAN SISTERS 89 

cared for by these more than philanthropic Cath- 
olic women of New York. These "daughters of 
Mother Barat," in the world but not of the world, 
are worthy representatives of that Foundress of 
one of the greatest yet humblest religious orders 
of women in the Church, and who, on May 24, 
1908, was canonically pronounced Blessed Sophie 
Barat. 



DOMINICAN SISTERS* 

1822 

In true accord with the spirit of St. Dominic, 
and realizing that the full complement of good 
to be hoped for as a result of labor in the work 
of the ministry could only be effected by secur- 
ing culture for both mind and heart, the pioneer 
Dominican missionaries had scarcely come to this 
country when they looked to the Catholic educa- 
tion of the young of their flock. 

Very Reverend Thomas Wilson, 0. P., having 
previously established a school for boys at St. 
Rose, near Springfield, in Washington County, 
Kentucky, appealed to the young ladies of the 
congregation, explaining to them the advantages 
of the religious life and the great necessity of pro- 
moting Catholic education. Answering the call, 
the following seven candidates presented them- 
selves: Maria Sansbury, in religion, Sister Angela; 
Mary Carico, Sister Margaret; Teresa Edelen, Sis- 
ter Magdalen; Elizabeth Sansbury, Sister Benve- 
nuta; Mary Ann Hill, Sister Ann; Rose Ann Sans- 

*Especially prepared by the Dominican Sisters, St. Catherine of 
Sienna Convent, St. Catherine, Washington County, Kentucky. 



90 DOMINICAN SISTERS 

bury, Sister Francis; Mary Salisbury, Sister Cath- 
arine. 

April 7, 1822, they entered upon their period of 
probation, and chose as patron of the Community, 
Saint Mary Magdalen. Like the Divine Master, 
they had no dwelling they might call their own. 
Near Saint Rose, and belonging to it, was a log 
cabin which was loaned to them. This was called 
Rethulia, the name having been given it by Fa- 
ther Montgomery, 0. P. 

On January 6, 1823, Sister Angela Sansbury was 
chosen first superior of the little Community. She 
made her profession in Saint Rose's Church. The 
newly appointed prioress later received the pro- 
fessions of the six other sisters, and shortly after- 
ward all began their life-work of instructing and 
training the young girls. Each Sister received 
from her parents sufficient provisions for one 
year, for their future needs; they tilled the soil, 
cut wood, spun flax and wool, and wove cloth, 
besides instructing the pupils committed to their 
care. Father Miles, O. P., was appointed first per- 
manent director for the Sisters, and he instructed 
the little Community in the duties of the religious 
life, the manner of reciting the office chorally, and 
the ceremonial of the Dominican Order. 

Slowly but surely the heroism, the patient en- 
durance of poverty, labor and suffering, and 
above all, the zeal and prayer of these devoted 
women surmounted all obstacles. Ever mindful 
of the wish of Saint Dominic — that his children 
devote themselves to prayer, study and work, par- 
ticularly the work of teaching, by which to aid in 
procuring the greater glory of God and the salva- 
tion of souls — the Community from its inception 
has been engaged, almost exclusively, in the edu- 
cation of youth. 




SISTER BERNARDINE, PRIORESS (1897 to 1900) 
Dominican Convent of St. Catharine of Sienna, St. Catharine, Kentucky 



A 



DOMINICAN SISTERS 91 

In 1825, the Sisters received the Salisbury es- 
tate, a small piece of property near Gartwright's 
Greek. A cabin of three rooms became Saint Mary 
Magdalen's Convent; to this was added a chapel, 
and an old "still house" near by was converted in- 
to a home for the pupils. This was the beginning 
of the boarding school. By 1850 the Sisters had 
succeeded in replacing the old buildings with a 
commodious church, convent and academy, built 
so as to form three sides of a square. 

December 19, 1839, the "Literary Institution of 
Saint Mary Magdalen" was incorporated by an act 
of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of 
Kentucky, but the name given the new Commu- 
nity seemed to be misleading and its work identi- 
fied — in the minds of many — with that of the 
Good Shepherd Sisters. To correct such erro- 
neous impressions, therefore, it was deemed neces- 
sary to change the name of the Institution, and by 
Corporate Act of March 11, 1851, it became known 
as the "Literary Society of Saint Catharine of 
Sienna." 

As the Community grew in numbers and its 
patronage increased, larger buildings replaced the 
older ones. At the dawn of the present century 
any one looking upon the establishment nestling 
among verdure clad hills, and immediately sur- 
rounded by grounds beautifully laid off and stud- 
ded with shrubs and flower beds would undoubt- 
edly have concluded that great suffering and in- 
convenience were — for the Community in general 
— a thing of the past. The cross, however, follows 
those whom God loveth, and January 2, 1904, is 
indelibly fixed in the memory of every Sister who 
was then a member of the Community. One night 
sufficed to wipe out the work of eighty years, and 



92 DOMINICAN SISTERS 

when the flames spent their force, there was ver- 
ily left "not a stone upon a stone." 

With sore hearts but undaunted faith and cour- 
age the work of reconstruction was promptly be- 
gun, and in less than two years a new Saint Cath- 
arine's had been erected. Dear as was the old 
site, it was abandoned because the hilltop was de- 
cided to be more healthful, easier of access and 
more convenient in every respect. The new St. 
Catharine's graces one of the highest points in 
Washington County, with a view of the surround- 
ing country, which is inexpressibly beautiful. Fa- 
miliarly it is known to the pupils of the Institu- 
tion as "Sienna Heights," while the old site is yet 
lovingly termed "Sienna Vale" and is held in 
memory as a hallowed spot. 

As St. Dominic, from the very foundation of 
his Order, began to send his brethren in many 
directions, so the Dominican Sisters, not content 
with instructing the youth in their own beloved 
Kentucky, sent members of their Community to 
other States. The first colony to leave St. Cath- 
arine's was destined to found Saint Mary's, in Per- 
ry County, Ohio. This foundation likewise became 
a novitiate house from which members joined 
Sisters from Kentucky in founding Saint Agnes 
Academy, in Memphis, and Saint Cecelia Acad- 
enry, in Nashville, Tennessee; Convent of Our 
Lady of the Sacred Heart, San Rafael, California; 
Sacred Heart Convent, Galveston, Texas, and 
Saint Clara Academy, Sinsiniwa Mound, Wiscon- 
sin. 

The custom in the beginning was to consider 
each foundation diocesan, and several of the 
above named establishments also sent out Sisters 
to make other foundations. St. Agnes Academy, 



DOMINICAN SISTERS 93 

Memphis, lost so many members of its Commu- 
nity by yellow fever that it could no longer supply 
Sisters for the various parochial schools of the 
city or other schools in the State, therefore the 
Sisters of Charity and other teachers succeeded to 
the work in these places. In its distress, the Com- 
munity at St. Agnes' applied for affiliation to St. 
Catharine's, that the academy work also might 
not suffer from lack of a sufficient number of Sis- 
ters to carry on its work. Therefore, of the foun- 
dations named, all except Saint Agnes' are now 
called Mother-houses and each has its own novi- 
tiate. 

Besides sending Sisters to St. Agnes', St. Cath- 
arine's at this date is in charge of Holy Rosary 
Academy, Louisville, Kentucky; Immaculate Con- 
ception Academy, Hastings, Nebraska; Our Lady 
of Lourdes Academy, Spalding, Nebraska; Sacred 
Heart Institute, Boston, Massachusetts; St. Dom- 
inic's Academy, Waverly, Massachusetts, and par- 
ochial schools in Kentucky, Tennessee, Illinois, In- 
diana, Massachusetts and Nebraska. 

The Community now numbers about three hun- 
dred members and has a larger novitiate than 
blessed any other period of its history. 

The new St. Catharine's in its completeness is 
a splendid pile of buildings with an equipment 
embracing everything modern, even its own elec- 
tric plant. The Academy and Convent, though un- 
der the same roof, are distinctly separate, having 
between them the chapel, infirmaries, guests- 
rooms, postoffice and other such apartments as 
pupils may visit, but beyond which they may not 
enter. J J 

During two months of the year candidates are 
admitted to the Novitiate so that they may com- 



94 THE SISTERS OF CHARITY 

plete a postulantship of six months either March 
7 or August 4, the feasts respectively of St. 
Thomas Aquinas and St. Dominic, One year later 
the novice makes profession for two years, at the 
end of that time for three years and then for life. 
After first profession the novice leaves the Novi- 
tiate proper and enters upon her work of teach- 
ing, that she may learn by experience the actual 
work of her vocation before binding herself to its 
duties for life. 

While the work of the Dominican Sisters is 
mainly that of teaching, they are free to under- 
take other works of charity, and have at times 
assumed charge of orphanages and hospitals, re- 
linquishing these, however, when there appeared 
in the field other religious who were by profes- 
sion bound to such labors. 



THE SISTERS OF CHARITY OF 
CINCINNATI * 

1829 

The Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati, whose 
mother-house is situated at Mount St. Joseph, Ohio, 
a suburb of Cincinnati, are Mother Seton's Daugh- 
ters and consequently began their educational 
and charitable work in the United States in 1809. 
They retain the rule, customs, and dress of their 
Foundress, the black cap known in almost every 
state of the Union until December 8, 1851, when 
the Sisters at Emmitsburg affiliated with the 

^'Especially prepared by the Sisters of Charity, Mount St. Joseph- 
on-the-Ohio, Cincinnati, Ohio. 



OF CINCINNATI 95 

Daughters of Charity in France. The Cornette 
was then introduced into the United States. The 
Sisters in Cincinnati preferring to keep the modi- 
fied rule of St. Vincent as approved by Archbish- 
op Carroll, and not wishing to lay aside the reli- 
gious garb of Mother Seton, which had been worn 
for forty- two years, protested against the alliance 
with the French Community and, advised by 
Archbishop Purcell and other prelates, opened a 
novitiate in Cincinnati for the American Daugh- 
ters of Charity. 

The constitutions of the French Society not 
permitting the teaching of boys in the schools, 
the caring for them in orphanages and hospitals, 
and other works dear to the heart of Archbishop 
Carroll and Mother Seton, the Pioneer Bishop of 
the country wished the Pioneer Community of the 
United States to pledge itself to ministrations of 
love to the young and helpless and to the sick and 
afflicted, in general. He approved the rules of St. 
Vincent only after they were modified to suit 
the needs of this Missionary Country. 

The Sisters came from Emmitsburg to Cincin- 
nati in October, 1829, and reached the Queen City 
on October 27. Bishop Fenwick, by whose invi- 
tation they had come, was at the Baltimore Coun- 
cil when they arrived. Great was his joy on re- 
turning home to find the Sisters installed with six 
little orphans under their care and eighty children 
in the school. 

After the Novitiate was opened, in 1852, the 
Community grew rapidly and foundations far be- 
yond its power to supply were offered. Nor has 
this condition changed. 

Eight hundred members are now scattered over 
Ohio, Michigan, Tennessee, Colorado, New Mex- 



96 THE SISTERS OF CHARITY 

ico. There are seventy-two branch houses; — ten 
hospitals, two orphanages, one foundling asylum, 
five academies, four boarding schools, and about 
sixty parochial schools. 

. The term for postulants is three months, fol- 
lowed by two years of novitiate, after which the 
novice makes temporary vows for a period of 
three years, then becomes a professed Sister. 

The temporal and spiritual business of the 
Community is administered by the Most Reverend 
Archbishop of Cincinnati, as Ecclesiastical Supe- 
rior with the Mother Superior and her Council, 
which consists of an assistant, a secretary and 
treasurer and a procuratrix — these four officers 
are elected by a chapter chosen by the professed 
Sisters. The chapter elects the four principal 
officers. The term for each is three years; but the 
Mother may be re-elected for a second term of 
three years but not longer. The Superiors of the 
branch houses are appointed by the Council at 
the Mother-house. 

The Community has been remarkably favored 
by God in having for its first Mother Superior 
Mother Margaret Cecilia George, one of the first 
companions of Mother Seton and an incorporator 
of the Emmitsburg Community. She lived till 
November 12, 1868, being the last of the original 
band. She became Treasurer of the Community 
at Emmitsburg in 1813, and held the office during 
various terms until 1839, so that every opportu- 
nity was offered her of knowing not only her own 
Community, but of following the spread of Cath- 
olicity throughout the United States. She left for 
her Community archives, letters, instructions, and 
the original Journal of Mother Seton, written in 
1803, letters and other documents from the pen 




d 
p 
o 

OQ O 

I— I -u 

a a 



OF CINCINNATI 97 

of Archbishop Carroll, Bishops Brute, Dubois, Du- 
bourg, England, Card. Cheverus, Bishops Tyler, 
Purcell, Hughes, Whelan, Rosati, Fathers Hickey, 
Deluol, Mailer, McElroy, and others. Her writ- 
ings and Journals are full of interesting accounts 
of the early days at Emmitsburg, of the establish- 
ment of various houses, especially of those over 
which she herself presided. She had charge of in- 
stitutions in New York, Frederick, Baltimore, 
Richmond, Boston and came to Cincinnati in 1845. 
She was succeeded in the office of Mother Supe- 
rior by Sister Josephine Harvey, a native of Brook- 
lyn, N. Y., who had been her pupil at Frederick, 
Md. Mother Josephine entered the Community at 
Emmitsburg, April 20, 1835. In 1837 she was sent 
on mission to Pittsburg, Pa., and to Cincinnati in 
1845. She held the office of Mother almost eigh- 
teen years. In her last term of office she resigned 
her charge before the last year had expired and 
was succeeded by Mother Mary Paul Hayes, who 
died during the third year of her administration. 
Mother Mary Blanche Davis succeeded her, first, 
by appointment, and then by election. She gov- 
erned the community at different times during a 
period of fourteen years and three months. 
Mother Sebastian Shea was her successor for six 
years and Mother Mary Florence Kent is now the 
presiding Mother. 

Between the years of Mother Josephine's double 
terms Mother Regina Mattingly governed the 
Community, dying in the last year of her second 
double term. Mother Regina entered Emmitsburg 
from Kentucky, whither her ancestors had emi- 
grated from Maryland. At the close of her novi- 
tiate in 1845, she was missioned to Cincinnati. 
Sister Anthony O'Connell, known as the "Angel 



98 THE SISTERS OF CHARITY 

of the Battlefield" went from Springfield, Mass., 
to the novitiate at Emmitsburg in 1835. She had 
charge of the old St. John Hospital, so renowned 
during the Civil War and the Good Samaritan of 
world-wide fame on account of its staff of emi- 
nent physicians. She spent almost her entire re- 
ligious life in Cincinnati, dying in 1897, at the age 
of eighty- three years, having spent sixty- three as 
a Sister of Charity. 

Sister Sophia Gillmeyer, a native of Baltimore, 
became a novice at Emmitsburg in 1827. She 
proved her zeal and ability in the St. Joseph Hos- 
pital, Philadelphia, and in Charity Hospital, New 
Orleans, and had the honor of opening the first 
Hospital in Cincinnati, Sister Anthony O'Connell 
then having charge of the orphans. In later years 
they exchanged places and Sister Sophia died 
while Superior of St. Joseph Orphanage at Cum- 
minsville in 1872. 

Sisters Antonia and Gonzalvia also entered at 
Emmitsburg but were very young Sisters at the 
time of the affiliation with the French Commu- 
nity. The rest of the eight hundred living and two 
hundred and fifty dead, began their religious life 
in Cincinnati, the first members of old St. Peter's 
in the heart of the city, later ones at Mt. St. Vin- 
cent, Mt. Harrison, still later at Mt. St. Vincent, 
Cedar Grove, and for the past forty-three years 
the novitiate has been at Mt. St. Joseph-on-the- 
Ohio. 

Two Communities have sprung from the foun- 
dation in Cincinnati. In 1858 Bishop Bailey of 
Newark, N. J., asked Mother Margaret to train pos- 
tulants for a diocesan community which he was 
about to establish. He wished her or some one of 
her appointment to go to New Jersey and begin 



OF CINCINNATI 99 

the work, but it was decided finally to send the 
young ladies to Cedar Grove to make their novi- 
tiate, the Bishop hoping that Mother Margaret, or 
if that could not be granted, some one else would 
return with the novices and remain with them 
for a few years until they would be sufficiently 
experienced to conduct their own establishments. 
Archbishop Purcell was unwilling to part with 
Mother Margaret even temporarily and he felt 
the Cincinnati Community needed all its teachers 
for home institutions, so Mother Margaret, zeal- 
ous for the welfare of the new foundation, begged 
Mother Jerome of New York to allow two of her 
Sisters to remain with the little band. A striking 
instance of the Providence of God is shown here. 
Sister Xavier, then on mission in Newark, was 
appointed Mother Superior and Sister Catharine 
her assistant. Mother Xavier is still Mother of 
that Community at the age of eighty-seven years. 
The Society numbers twelve hundred members 
with flourishing institutions in Massachusetts, 
New York and New Jersey. At the mother-house, 
Convent Station, New Jersey, is their College of 
St. Elizabeth, presided over by a Faculty of Sis- 
ters, who have obtained degrees from the fore- 
most colleges and universities of the country. 
They have sixty-five branch houses: — academies, 
parochial schools, orphanages, hospitals. 

The second foundation from Cincinnati is the 
Community whose Mother House is at Seton Hill, 
Greensburg, Pa. Bishop Domenec of Allegheny 
and Bishop Tuigg of Altoona, Pa., wishing to es- 
tablish Mother Seton's Daughters in their joint 
dioceses sent four young ladies to be trained by 
Mothers Josephine and Regina, Mother Margaret 
having died the preceding year, 1868. 



100 THE SISTERS OF CHARITY 

Five Sisters from the Cincinnati Mother House 
accompanied the novices, and were to remain 
with the new Community for a limited time, re- 
turning to Cincinnati one by one. Three of the 
Sisters fulfilled this part of the contract, but when 
it came to parting with the Mother Superior, 
Mother Aloysia Lowe and the Mistress of Novices 
— Sister Ann Regina Ennis — there was an outcry 
from the Bishop, the clergy, and most of all from 
the Community, so the Cincinnati Superior after 
much prayerful deliberation urged the two Sis- 
ters to make a further sacrifice and transfer them- 
selves permanently to Mother Seton's youngest 
Daughters. They did this and their offering was 
crowned after a few short years of loving labor. 
The Greensburg Community numbers about four 
hundred Sisters. They have a flourishing Acad- 
emy at Seton Hill, Greensburg, many of the par- 
ochial schools in Pittsburg and other places 
throughout Pennsylvania. They conduct the Pitts- 
burg and Beaver Hospitals, the Roselia Asylum 
and one of the very few boarding schools for the 
blind in the United States. Mother Mary Francis 
is the present Mother Superior. 

The Sisters of Charity like all other religious 
have learned that the keynote to success, even 
temporarily, is sacrifice. 

Mother Seton, in the days of struggle and very 
limited resources, built for poor children a school- 
house and gave them not only gratuitous educa- 
tion, but furnished them with a wholesome noon- 
day meal. 

Mother Margaret almost during the infancy of 
her own Cincinnati foundation stretched forth a 
helping hand and encouraging words to the New 
Jersey establishment. 



OF CINCINNATI 101 

Mother Josephine, in the next decade, when the 
sound of the battle was heard far and near, sent 
forth her Sisters to wait upon the sick and dying 
soldiers in army hospitals and on the battlefield, 
while those who remained at home did double 
duty. 

Mother Regina followed Mother Margaret's ex- 
ample, helped to found the new Mother House in 
Pittsburg and when Archbishop Lamy of New 
Mexico and Bishop Macheboeuf of Colorado 
begged for Sisters to cross the plains and estab- 
lish beyond the Rockies, hospitals, orphanages 
and schools, she rose to the need of the times and 
took from many volunteers those whom she 
deemed best adapted to the new work. 

Mothers Mary Paul and Sebastian, though not 
called upon for such sacrifice during their admin- 
istration, knowing from their lives of abnegation 
as Superiors of orphanage and hospital that work 
for God's poor brings increase of spiritual and 
temporal favors, labored to keep strong the foun- 
dations already laid and added to the schools and 
institutions already begun. 

Mother Mary Blanche after enlarging the moth- 
er-house by the addition of a beautiful chapel and 
a well-equipped infirmary for the aged and sick, 
a commodious novitiate and administrative build- 
ing, thought of the poor Italians and started the 
Santa Maria Institute for their welfare, and a few 
years later opened the St. Anthony School in 
Memphis for the instruction of the Negroes. 

What Mother Mary Florence Kent shall place 
on the unblemished scroll of the Community's 
sacrificial record is not yet written, for her ad- 
ministration is only recently begun. During the 
preparation of this article Father Versavel, S. J., 



102 DOMINICAN SISTERS— 

visited the Mother-house, soliciting four Sisters 
for his school in British Honduras. Did the Holy 
Spirit send him to Mount St. Joseph? We shall 
see . 



OBLATE SISTERS OF PROVI- 
DENCE * 

1829 

The Congregation of the Oblate Sisters of Prov- 
idence, was founded in Baltimore in the year 
1829; the mother-house of the community is at 
the Convent of St. Francis, East Chase street, Bal- 
timore, Md. The Sisters conduct establishments 
in the Archdioceses of Baltimore and St. Louis, 
and in the Diocese of Leavenworth. 

*From the Catholic Directory of 1912. 



DOMINICAN SISTERS— ST. MARY'S 
OF THE SPRINGS* 

1830 

For fully a quarter of a century, had the Do- 
minican Fathers, filled with the zeal of their de- 
voted founder in the United States — Father Ed- 
ward Dominic Fenwick — labored as pioneers of 
the Christian faith in the West; already, for al- 
most a decade of years, had the first Dominican 
Sisters consecrated their lives to the cause of 
Catholic education in Kentucky, when the Congre- 

*From material furnished by the Dominican Sisters, St. Mary's 
of the Springs (Shepard P. O.), Columbus, Ohio. 



ST. MARY'S OF THE SPRINGS 103 

gation that forms the subject of this sketch had 
its beginning. 

It drew its life from the earlier foundation — 
then St. Magdalen's, now St. Catharine of Sienna's 
— established in 1822 by Father Wilson near 
Springfield, Kentucky. Father Fenwick had been 
made Bishop of Cincinnati. Interested in all that 
concerned the Order, still more deeply in the wel- 
fare of souls, he desired to extend the Sisters' 
sphere of usefulness, and in 1830 obtained for his 
diocese four Sisters from the Convent of St. Cath- 
arine of Sienna. 

It was midwinter when the little band, which 
consisted of Mother Emily Elder, Sister Benvin 
Sansbury, Sister Agnes Harbin, and Sister Cathe- 
rine Mudd, set forth from the Kentucky home to 
brave the hardships incident to the establishment 
of a new foundation. Their destination was Som- 
erset, a then promising little town in Perry Coun- 
ty, Ohio. Arriving there they found a gratified 
public waiting to receive them. A small brick 
house, together with an acre of land, had been as- 
signed them, and an adjoining carpenter shop 
had been fitted up as a school. Conventual life 
was at once entered upon, and the new founda- 
tion was named St. Mary's and placed in a special 
manner under the protection of the Queen of 
Heaven. A novitiate was also established, the first 
novice being Sister Rose Lynch, identified in later 
years with the Galveston Community. However, 
the Sisters continued to receive reinforcements 
from St. Catharine's, both houses being under the 
government of the Order. On April 23, 1833, Sis- 
ter Angela Sansbury — the foundress of Saint 
Catharine's — arrived at St. Mary's, where she re- 
mained, filling the office of Prioress until her holy 
and beautiful death, November 30, 1839. 



104 DOMINICAN SISTERS— 

As Catholic education was from the outset the 
informing purpose of the Institute, no time was 
lost in opening a school, in which on the 5th of 
April, 1830, forty pupils were enrolled. The es- 
tablishing of a boarding school in connection with 
the day school had not entered into the original 
design of Bishop Fenwick, but while making his 
visitation of the diocese, finding the current of 
popular feeling strongly in favor of such an acad- 
emy, he saw the advisability of altering his plan. 
Accordingly, St. Mary's became a boarding school, 
and before the close of 1830, was legally incorpor- 
ated under the title: "St. Mary's Female Literary 
Society." 

More commodious quarters having become an 
imperative necessity, under the changed condi- 
tions, the Sisters, with the approval of the Bishop 
and the generous help of kind friends in Somer- 
set, began the erection of a new convent. It was a 
substantial brick structure, three stories in height, 
with attic and basement, and was ready for occu- 
pancy by the winter of 1831. 

By 1850 the membership of the Congregation 
had increased sufficiently to warrant the estab- 
lishment of other independent houses. The next 
ten years constitute, as it were, an era of new 
foundations. Taken in order of time, these were 
as follows: Memphis, Tennessee, 1850; Monterey, 
California, 1851; Benton, Wisconsin, 1854; Zanes- 
ville, Ohio, 1855; Nashville, Tennessee, 1860. Of 
these, the community of Monterey was founded 
by a French Sister of the Second Order and two 
Sisters from St. Mary's; that of Benton had al- 
ready been in process of formation several years 
when it was given definite organization by Sister 
Joanna Clark from St. Mary's; the Zanesville Sis- 



ST. MARY'S OF THE SPRINGS 105 

ters never entirely severed their connection with 
the Mother-house, and in later years their institu- 
tion merged into a parochial school in depend- 
ence upon St. Mary's. The Memphis foundation 
was undertaken conjointly by Sisters from St. 
Catharine's and St. Mary's. While thus actively 
engaged both at home and abroad, a severe and 
unexpected trial awaited St. Mary's community. 
In the early summer of 1866 fire broke out in the 
convent building. It gained headway so rapidly 
that little could be done beyond saving the lives 
of the inmates, and Sisters and pupils, from a safe 
distance, sorrowfully watched the complete de- 
struction of their beloved home. Through the 
kindness of the Dominican Fathers, the Sisters 
were at once provided with a home; sending their 
novices to St. Rose's, Kentucky, they gave to the 
Sisters the building which they had used as a no- 
vitiate. There, accordingly, the Sisters took up 
their residence and there conducted their school 
during the two years following. 

In this hour of trial for the Sisters other friends, 
too, came forward, chief among them Mr. Theo- 
dore Leonard of Columbus, Ohio, who not only 
offered the community any part of his land in Co- 
lumbus as a site for a new convent, but pledged 
his further assistance in building. The offer was 
gratefully accepted, and the present location, — 
now designated Shepard, Ohio, — about one mile 
northeast of Columbus, was selected. It was a 
charming and attractive spot, rolling away on the 
east in a broad undulating sweep, well wooded on 
the west, broken here and there by a picturesque 
ravine, and watered by the silvery thread of a 
tiny stream that wound its way to Alum Creek. 
Springs which have long since disappeared 



106 DOMINICAN SISTERS— 

gushed here and there and everywhere, and from 
their beauty and abundance the place received its 
name, "St. Mary's of the Springs." 

In this favored spot, then, with the permission 
of the Right Rev. S. H. Rosecrans, then just in- 
stalled as first Bishop of Columbus, the Convent 
and Academy of St. Mary's of the Springs was 
erected. The Sisters took possession of their new 
quarters September 1, 1868. They then numbered 
twenty-six, and Mother Rose Lynch, who had held 
the office of Superior for some years, became the 
first Prioress of the new establishment. Almost 
coincident with the change of location, bringing 
with it enlarged facilities for prosecuting w r ork in 
educational fields, other changes were in opera- 
tion which, though seemingly unpropitious, made 
in their final outcome for the greater solidarity of 
the institute. 

Founded by the Dominican Provincial, St. 
Mary's and its sister institutions were for a num- 
ber of years immediately under the jurisdiction 
of the Order, but in 1865 Most Rev. A. V. Jandel, 
Master-General of the Dominican Order, felt him- 
self constrained to withdraw this jurisdiction. It 
had been granted merely in view of special exi- 
gencies existing in the United States, and these no 
longer demanded such concessions. Thus the Sis- 
ters, while still receiving counsel and guidance 
from the Fathers and enjoying the privilege of 
their ministrations as chaplain, were left without 
definite canonical status. Moreover, the Constitu- 
tions under which they were living — compiled in 
part from those of the Fathers, and modified from 
time to time by regulations and ordinances from 
other communities — were incomplete and imper- 
fect in many respects. As the community in- 




o 

Eh 

o 

H 

O 
O 



ST. MARY'S OF THE SPRINGS 107 

creased in numbers year by year and mission 
houses multiplied, the necessity of a more thor- 
ough organization became evident. 

The Rule of the Congregation of the Most Holy 
Rosary, approved by the Propaganda, was taken 
as a basis for the new Constitutions, certain 
changes and modifications being introduced 
which special circumstances rendered necessary. 
In 1893, through the valuable assistance of the 
Very Rev. Father Cicognani, Procurator-General 
of the Dominican Order, this Rule was approved 
by Rome for five years. By it St. Mary's of the 
Springs, with the missions and academies depend- 
ent upon it, was organized into a Congregation 
under the direct control of a Mother-General. In 
the autumn of the same year, Sister Vincentia Er- 
skine was elected to fill this important office, 
which she has since continued to exercise by suc- 
cessive re-elections. 

After a series of delays these Constitutions, 
somewhat modified to conform to the "Normae" 
for religious institutes prescribed in the meantime 
by Rome, received in 1903 the final approbation of 
the Holy See. Under the new Constitutions the 
Congregation received the official designation: 
"The American Congregation of Dominican Ter- 
tiaries of the Blessed Virgin Mary." These Con- 
stitutions, while making definite provisions for 
the government of the Congregation in all its de- 
partments, likewise exemplify that blending of 
the active with the contemplative life that has 
been the well-spring of Dominican power since 
the foundation of the Order and one of the se- 
crets of its adaptability to changing conditions. 
They hold up the true ideal of devotion to the 
cause of humanity which the pseudo-philanthro- 



108 DOMINICAN SISTERS— 

pists of the Twentieth century are seeking in vain, 
because they seek it afar from the true source— 
the Divine. The chapter devoted to the training 
of youth is brief and succinct, but sets forth with 
authoritative incisiveness the spiritual principles 
underlying all right education. 

Such a basis of religion has St. Mary's always 
sought to give to the education imparted in her 
academies and parochial schools. She has not 
been unmindful of the intellectual advance de- 
manded by the times, nor indifferent to the im- 
portance of employing modern pedagogic meth- 
ods. Year by year her teachers labor to increase 
their efficiency by courses in music, science, lit- 
erature and art, under the direction of teachers 
from the most noted institutions. Her studios are 
modeled after the great European art schools; her 
music courses after the famous foreign conserva- 
tories; the courses of studies in her academies is 
planned along lines essentially modern, including 
higher mathematics, the study of the ancient class- 
ics and the laboratory work now regarded as a 
necessary part of thorough education. 

But while keeping in the foremost rank of prog- 
ress in all that pertains to general culture, St. 
Mary's has steadily held in view the ideal of 
education set forth in the Constitutions of the Con- 
gregation — the training of souls for their im- 
mortal destiny. She aims to have those intrusted 
to her teaching not only grounded in solid and 
fervent piety that will bear fruit during a life- 
time, but, above all, awakened to such an intelli- 
gent appreciation of their faith that they may 
be a power for good in a world where the spirit 
of religion is so much needed. 

The educational work of St. Mary's, as it is to- 



ST. MARY'S OF THE SPRINGS 109 

day with its magnificent group of modern, well- 
equipped buildings, combines the best features 
of women's colleges, breadth of training, and free 
development of the individuality, with the higher 
requirements of the convent school in comprehen- 
sion of the direction needful to prepare the young 
girl for the duties of the perfect Christian woman. 
The graduate is prepared, as far as training can 
prepare her, for the highest responsibilities of 
life; she is fortified with the knowledge of the 
powers of her own nature, is thoroughly imbued 
with lofty ideals, and trebly armed with the faith 
that is at once her shield and her support. 

What has been said of the educational methods 
pursued at St. Mary's of the Springs applies equal- 
ly to the academies dependent upon it. The same 
principles dominate the system of teaching in 
the other academies of the Order, with such mod- 
ifications, however, as local conditions and the 
more limited scope of the day school render ad- 
visable. Of these academies, there are now two: 
The Dominican Academy in New York City, 
founded in 1897, and St. Mary's, New Haven, Con- 
necticut, founded in 1901. 

But the Dominican Sisters of St. Mary's of the 
Springs feel that the words of the Constitutions, 
"As Christian educators, we are associated with 
our Lord Jesus Christ in the salvation of souls," 
have a still more direct and intimate bearing upon 
their work in the many parochial schools which 
they have established. Here they find their rich- 
est and most fruitful field of labor; here the har- 
vest is indeed white, and the laborers, alas! too 
few. 



110 SISTERS OF CHARITY OF THE 



SISTERS OF CHARITY OF THE 
BLESSED VIRGIN MARY* 

1833 

The Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of 
the Blessed Virgin Mary had its inception in the 
piety of five young women who, in Dublin, Ire- 
land, on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, 
December 8, 1831, received Holy Communion as 
their first act of community life. With varying 
success they carried out their plan of devoting 
themselves to the service of God in the education 
of children, and for this purpose they opened a 
school on North Ann Street, Dublin, on the Feast 
of St. Joseph, 1832. 

Eager for more complete self-sacrifice, they re- 
solved to leave their native land, and following 
wise counsel, they chose Philadelphia for their 
field of labor, arriving there friendless and pen- 
niless on September 4, 1833. By accident the lit- 
tle bag of gold, their united wealth, had slipped 
into the sea. Tasting now the bitterness of pov- 
erty, their spirits were but strengthened; no long- 
ing for comfort marred their sacrifice; their re- 
nunciation was complete. 

On May 1, 1833, the Rev. T. J. Donaghoe had 
been appointed pastor of St. Michael's Church, 
Philadelphia. Knowing the necessity of a paro- 
chial school in upbuilding a parish, he was seek- 
ing suitable teachers when he heard of these gentle 

* Especially prepared by Julia Lalor for the "History of the Cath- 
olic Church in the United States," reprinted here by authorization of the 
Sisters of Charity of the B. V. M., St. Joseph's Convent, Mt. Carmel, 
Dubuque, Iowa. 



BLESSED VIRGIN MARY 111 

strangers. With the permission of Archbishop 
Kenrick, Father Donaghoe employed the ladies as 
teachers, and soon recognizing the true nature of 
their calling, he drew up a rule of life for their 
approval. As they organized themselves into a 
community under this rule, Father Donaghoe is 
rightly called the founder of this religious sister- 
hood, with Mary Frances Clarke the superior, and 
Margaret Mann the assistant and mistress of 
novices. On the Feast of All Saints, November 1, 
1833, they received the title Sisters of Charity of 
the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the little band found 
their desire fulfilled. Gradually the sisterhood 
increased in numbers and distinguished itself by 
the good it wrought; and for ten years the young 
community prepared itself for its future life. 

But it was not in Philadelphia nor in the farther 
East, whither they were invited by the Most Rev. 
Archbishop Hughes, but upon the far-off prairies 
of the unknown West that the Sisters were to co- 
operate in the great apostolate of education. 

The saintly Bishop Loras had worked wonders 
in establishing the Church in the West. In 1843 
he called upon Father Donaghoe and the Sisters 
at St. Michael's in Philadelphia, and was so well 
pleased with the school and with the spirit of 
the young religious that he urged Father Donag- 
hoe to permit five Sisters to return with him to 
Dubuque, his episcopal see. With the consent of 
the Most Rev. Archbishop Kenrick, Bishop Loras 
and his party of five Sisters, with Sister Mary Mar- 
garet Mann as superior, left Philadelphia, June 5, 
1843. They were accompanied by the Right Rev. 
P. R. Kenrick, the newly consecrated Bishop of 
St. Louis. 

An interesting incident is associated with their 



112 SISTERS OF CHARITY OF THE 

arrival in Dubuque on the Feast of the Sacred 
Heart, June 23, 1843. Crowds had assembled to 
welcome their beloved Bishop Loras. They 
strained their eager gaze to discern the river pack- 
et, their ears to catch the sound of the boat whistle. 
But what is it they hear? The sweet tone of a 
bell breaks the stillness of the morning air. One, 
two, three strokes, a trinity of peals, the first An- 
gelus ever heard in the diocese of the West. As 
the boat appeared in sight, the Angelus ringing, 
the five dark-robed Sisters standing near the 
bishop responding to the Angelic salutation, Cath- 
olics and non-Catholics alike shouted joyous wel- 
come to the well-loved bishop and his companions, 
while cannon and gun awoke the echoes from the 
hills and valleys that surround the present mother- 
house on Mount Carmel. The beautiful little 
island and the high rocky point near by have since 
been named by the Sisters, "Angelus Island," and 
"St. Mary's Point," in memory of that eventful 
morning. Meet it was that the first Angelus should 
announce the arrival of the Sisters of Charity of 
the Blessed Virgin Mary, the pioneers of Christian 
education in the West. 

So successful was the work of the Sisters and 
so pressing were the needs of the diocese that 
Bishop Loras urged Father Donaghoe to bring 
the entire Community to Dubuque. On Rosary 
Sunday of 1843, the Reverend founder arrived 
with the Sisters, who had remained in Philadel- 
phia, but he was obliged to go back in order to 
complete arrangements for his final departure 
from the Philadelphia diocese and to dispose of 
the convent property. On his return to Dubuque 
he was appointed vicar-general of the diocese. In 
1846, the Rev. J. Cretin, afterward Bishop of St. 



BLESSED VIRGIN MARY 113 

Paul, obtained from His Holiness, Gregory XVI., 
a brief of special blessing and indulgence for the 
congregation. 

Dubuque then contained about seven hundred 
inhabitants, and the neighboring prairies were 
scarcely opened to European emigration. It was 
then that the Sisters' works of charity recom- 
menced, instructing children, visiting and taking 
care of the sick; in a word, spreading abroad the 
fragrant odor of heroic virtues among a popula- 
tion of which three-fourths were infidels, or here- 
tics. 

The number of novices had now increased so 
greatly that the need of a new mother-house and 
novitiate made itself deeply felt. A site was 
chosen ten miles southwest of the city of Dubuque 
and the tract of land was called St. Joseph's 
Prairie. No more appropriate spot could have 
been selected. The surroundings were calm, tran- 
quil, beautiful and simple, possessing all the love- 
liness and repose that nature in her most favored 
works can give, typifying and reflecting the quality 
and character of the noble mission in which the 
Sisters were already so actively engaged. Soon 
after the Sisters had established themselves in this 
solitude, in the midst of privations and sufferings 
known only to God and His angels, fire, supposed 
to have been ignited by a roving lunatic, de- 
stroyed, in a few moments, the buildings destined 
to be the mother-house and novitiate. At this un- 
expected disaster the pious founder, full of faith 
and confidence, lifting up his eyes to heaven, 
simply said: "The Lord gave and the Lord has 
taken away. Let the name of the Lord be 
blessed." Father Donaghoe applied himself to 
work without delay, encouraged by Bishop Loras 



114 SISTERS OF CHARITY OF THE 

and sustained by the spirit of abnegation and per- 
severance which the Sisters never failed to mani- 
fest. He built successively the little chapel, the 
house for the Sisters and that for the novices, be- 
ing content with a little log hut for himself which 
he occupied for years, even after having installed 
his Community in sufficiently commodious quar- 
ters. The new edifice was erected under the in- 
vocation of St. Joseph; it comprised not only the 
Sisters' dwellings but during fifteen years it was 
also a flourishing boarding school. 

As years went by, the "Old St. Joseph's" was 
found inadequate for the increased demands for 
space; and for reasons of sanitation suggested by 
the physicians, as well as the great inconvenience 
of bringing supplies so long a distance, it was 
deemed advisable to build anew. The present 
Mount Carmel, a site on the summit of one of the 
most beautiful bluffs overlooking the Mississippi, 
was chosen; it lies just within the city limits. 

The first superior-general, Mother Mary Fran- 
cis Clarke, was truly a child of grace, an instru- 
ment in the hands of God for the performance of 
a great work. She was in the world but not of it; 
her humble exterior concealed an extraordinary 
ability which became manifest at the call of duty. 
Her every word breathed humility, meekness, 
kindness, patience and charity. All too soon the 
sorrowing congregation lost her guidance; she 
rested from her labors December 4, 1887. May 
she rest in peace! Mother Clarke was succeeded 
in office by Mother Mary Gertrude, during whose 
administration the present mother-house was 
built and the novitiate transferred from St. Jo- 
seph's Prairie to Mount Carmel. The present su- 
perior-general, Mother Mary Cecilia, nobly sus- 



BLESSED VIRGIN MARY 115 

tains the traditions of her predecessors, and does 
not permit the original purpose of the institute to 
be changed in any way. Christian education in 
America is the basis of the Constitutions and 
Rules of the Congregation, and to this the legisla- 
tive and executive ability of the members is ex- 
clusively directed. To quote the words of the late 
Archbishop of Dubuque: "The members of this 
community are well qualified to train the child 
educationally and religiously for the position she 
is destined to fill. Providence has placed them 
in the very heart of the Republic, at the juncture 
of the finest States in the Union. They have gone 
to the East and the West in this land of brightest 
promise for the growth of the Church of God. 
Truth and justice, simplicity and sanctity, were 
the characteristic virtues of their foundress; they 
have made them their own; they have followed 
in her footsteps, and thus they continue the glo- 
rious work of Christian education in America." 

A Decree of the Sacred Congregation approved 
their Rules in 1877, and on April 26, 1885, His Holi- 
ness Leo XIII. deigned to confirm this approval. 
The work of the Sisters is that of education; they 
engage in no other. From so lowly a beginning, 
Almighty God has been pleased to raise an insti- 
tute comprising more than a thousand living mem- 
bers, and having under its direction more than 
thirty thousand children. 



116 SISTERS OF ST. JOSEPH 

SISTERS OF ST. JOSEPH* 

1836 

In 1650 the Congregation of the Sisters of Saint 
Joseph was founded in the City of Puy, France, by 
a zealous missionary of the Society of Jesus, the 
Reverend John Paul Medaille. 

When consulted, the Bishop, Right Rev. Henry 
de Maupas, approved of the establishment of an 
active Order in his diocese, as the Visitation Nuns, 
contrary to the intention of their saintly founder, 
had assumed the obligations of the cloister. 

According to the Rules and Constitutions writ- 
ten by the saintly founder, Rev. John Paul Me- 
daille, and corroborated by their foundress, 
Mother Saint John Fontbonne, the Sisters of Saint 
Joseph are instructed to devote themselves to all 
works of mercy and charity, by which the glory of 
God and the welfare of the neighbor may be pro- 
moted. 

As teaching is their chief duty in the sacred vine- 
yard, they are exhorted to fit themselves especial- 
ly for this great and most important work. 

A six months' probation precedes the novice's 
reception of the holy habit. Two years are de- 
voted to study and religious training before the 
taking of the final vows, after which two years 
are spent under training in the novitiate. 

Louis XIV. confirmed by letters patent the first 
establishments of the Congregation of the Sisters 
of Saint Joseph in the Cities of Puy, St. Didier, and 
several other places in Velay. The Sisters were 
later introduced into the dioceses of Clermont, 



*Especially prepared by the Sisters of St. Joseph, St. Joseph's 
Convent. Brentwood. L. I., N. Y. 



SISTERS OF ST. JOSEPH 117 

Vienne, Lyons, Grenoble, Embrum, Gap, Sisteron, 
Vivier, Uzes and several others. 

Nearly a century and a half had passed, the 
Community had rapidly increased and extended 
into almost all the principal cities of France when, 
during the Revolution in 1793, the Sisters' con- 
vents and chapels were confiscated, their annals 
were destroyed and the religious were obliged to 
join Communities in other countries or return to 
their respective homes in the world. During this 
Reign of Terror, several Sisters of St. Joseph died 
for the faith, and several others escaped the guil- 
lotine only by the fall of Robespierre. Among 
the latter was Mother Saint John Fontbonne, who, 
in her notebook, records the names of four Sisters 
of St. Joseph imprisoned with her at St. Didier, 
five others imprisoned in the dungeon at Feurs, 
twenty in Clermont and other parts of France. 

The Congregation has had its martyrs. During 
the persecution in Dauphine for refusing to take 
the civil oath, three Sisters of St. Joseph, Mother 
St. Croix Vincent, 63 years of age; Mother Made- 
leine Senovert, aged 40, and Sister Toussante Du- 
monlin, aged 31 years, were condemned to death 
and guillotined on August 5, 1794. 

The author of the "Martyrs of the Revolution" 
thus describes another persecution in Haute Loire 
in which two Sisters of St. Joseph were executed : 
"The spectators who congregated to see the con- 
demned pass from the prison to the scaffold, be- 
holding their calm and recollected demeanor, 
could not restrain their emotion, and in tones of 
pitiful enthusiasm cried out, 'Our hearts and sym- 
pathies, our prayers go with you, dear Sisters, 
even to your death scene, your martyrdom.' Sis- 
ter Marie Aubert, the first to die, was speedily fol- 



118 SISTERS OF ST. JOSEPH 

lowed by Sister Anne Marie Gamier. Two priests, 
also condemned to die, chanted the Miserere and 
as the first bloody tragedy drew to a close, they in- 
toned the Te Deum, rendering up their own lives 
in the act of chanting, 'In Te Domine Speravi,' 
'In Thee, Lord, have I hoped.' " 

After the Revolution, from 1793 until 1807, the 
Community of the Sisters of Saint Joseph was dis- 
banded. August 15, 1807, Mother St. John Font- 
bonne reopened their convent at St. fitienne, or in 
other words, refounded the Order, which has since 
made such progress that the words of the Blessed 
Cure of Ars are often quoted in its regard : "The 
Sisters of Saint Joseph will outnumber the very 
stars in the heavens." 

The first Sisters of St. Joseph that came to 
America established their mother-house at Car- 
rondelet, Missouri, in 1836, their rules and mode 
of life under general government, receiving the 
approbation of the Holy See in the year 1877. As 
the Pennsylvania Community of the Sisters of St. 
Joseph represented a diocesan Community, so 
also was the Congregation admitted from Phila- 
delphia into Brooklyn in 1856. 

On September 8, 1856, the Sisters of St. Joseph 
opened St. Mary's Academy on Grand Street, 
Brooklyn, New York, and twenty little girls were 
registered as pupils. 

In 1860, at the request of the Rev. James 
O'Beirne, the diocesan novitiate and the boarding 
school were removed to Flushing, Long Island. 
Father O'Beirne took a deep interest in the spir- 
itual welfare of the community, to which, up to 
the time of his death, in January, 1888, he proved 
himself a sincere and devoted friend. 

Mother Mary Austin wisely directed and gov- 



SISTERS OF ST. JOSEPH 119 

erned the Community for nine consecutive years, 
when incapacitated by ill health, she resigned the 
charge of General Superior. 

Mother Mary Baptista was Mother Mary Austin's 
immediate and very worthy successor. In August, 
1868, Mother Mary Teresa Mullen was elected 
General Superior, which office she retained during 
a period of twenty-four years, witnessing in her 
long administration a great increase in the Com- 
munity and a remarkable extension of the work 
assigned the Sisters in the Brooklyn and other 
dioceses. 

On August 15, 1902, Mother Mary Louise was 
elected General Superior. Having been identified, 
as a pupil, with the opening of the Academy, and 
connected as a music teacher with the mother- 
house during her entire religious life, she was in 
every respect qualified to succeed the honored 
Superior with whom she had been so many years 
intimately associated. 

As the town of Flushing grew more and more 
populous, the surroundings of the convent became 
proportionately less and less desirable as a site 
for the novitiate and the boarding school for 
young ladies. In February, 1896, through the 
kindness of the Bishop, the Right Rev. C. E. Mc- 
Donnell, D. D., the Sisters were enabled to pur- 
chase a valuable piece of property comprising 
three hundred and fifty acres, formerly known as 
Pine Park, at Brentwood, New York. The Aus- 
tral hotel and three fine cottages already graced 
the premises. The large brick structure later 
erected was the scene of very interesting exercises 
held on the occasion of the opening of the Acad- 
emy, June 11, the Feast of Corpus Christi, 1903. 

The Golden Jubilee of the first foundation of 



120 SISTERS OF NOTRE DAME 

the Sisters of Saint Joseph in the Brooklyn dio- 
cese was celebrated August 25, 1906. The Brook- 
lyn Community, now numbering more than 700 
members, is represented in almost every parish of 
the diocese. 

The large main building at present in course of 
erection at "Brentwood" will afford greater ac- 
commodations to the senior students at the insti- 
tution. The new edifice, like the present academy, 
is of light vitrified brick, constructed in steel, with 
brick columns. The girders and beams are arched 
with the reinforced concrete that underfloors the 
entire building. In every detail it is constructed 
according to the laws of New York City for fire- 
proof buildings. 

Mother-houses that have branched off from the 
Brooklyn diocese are at Rutland, Vermont; Ebens- 
burg, Pennsylvania; Boston, Chicopee Falls and 
North Adams, Massachusetts. 



SISTERS OF NOTRE DAME* 

OF 

NAMUR 
1840 

The Institute of the Sisters of Notre Dame of 
Namur was founded in 1804, at Amiens, by Maria 
Rose Julie Billiart, a native of Cuvilly, in Picardy. 
Little Julie even in tender childhood was remark- 
able for her piety, which often inspired her to 
withdraw from the sports of her companions to 

^Especially prepared by the Sisters of Notre Dame of Namur, 
Convent of Notre Dame, Sixth Avenue East, Cincinnati, Ohio. 




BLESSED JULIA BILLIART 
Foundress of the Sisters of Notre Dame, Beatified May 13, .1900 



OF NAMUR 121 

pray in some secluded spot, with a gravity and de- 
votion far beyond her age. When Julie was seven 
years old she knew and understood her catechism 
perfectly and after school hours gathered her 
little companions around her to explain to them 
the elements of the Christian faith. Arrived 
at her sixteenth year, this chosen soul was in- 
itiated in the school of the Cross, for financial 
reverses and other misfortunes befell her family, 
while Julie herself, subsequent to a nervous shock 
occasioned by an attempt against her father's 
life, became unable to walk a step and was 
stretched on a bed of sickness for twenty-two 
years. Yet even during this period of suffering 
she gathered about her couch the poor and igno- 
rant to teach them the truths of our Holy Faith. 

This zeal and her reputation for sanctity drew 
upon Julie the hatred of the Revolutionists, who 
sought the death of "the devotee," so that she was 
compelled to flee to Compiegne, concealed in the 
bottom of a cart. During the three years of her 
stay there she was forced to change her lodgings 
five times in order to save her life. Her suffer- 
ings were intense, but Julie was less afflicted at 
her bodily illness than at the utter lack of spir- 
itual help. God, however, consoled His faithful 
servant with a heavenly vision. On the summit 
of Calvary she saw our crucified Lord surrounded 
by a multitude of religious wearing a habit she 
had never seen before. As Julie contemplated 
this wondrous spectacle, she distinctly heard a 
voice saying: "Behold the spiritual daughters 
whom I give to you in the Institute which will be 
marked by My Cross." So clear was the vision, 
so deeply imprinted on her memory were the fea- 
tures of the religious, that in after years she could 



122 SISTERS OF NOTRE DAME 

say to postulants : "Yes, God wills you in our In- 
stitute, for I saw you among ours at Compiegne." 
And when the time came to choose a religious 
dress for her Sisters, without a moment's hesi- 
tation she gave detailed orders as to the shape 
and material, saying: "So it was shown to me at 
Compiegne." 

In 1794 Julie was removed to Amiens where she 
first met the Viscountess, Blin de Bourdon, later 
known as Mother St. Joseph, whom God had 
chosen to be the co-foundress and second Superior 
General of the Sisters of Notre Dame. The forma- 
tion of a religious congregation for the education 
of young girls was the result of a formal order to 
Blessed Julie in the name of God by Father Jo- 
seph Varin, S. J., who discerned her fitness for 
such an enterprise despite her infirm and helpless 
condition. In August, 1803, she rented a house in 
the Rue Neuve, Amiens, which the Sisters of Notre 
Dame regard as the cradle of their Institute. Here 
she received her first postulant and eight little 
orphans confided to her by Father Varin. In the 
chapel of this house the two foundresses and their 
postulant, on February 2, 1804, made or renewed 
the vow of chastity, solemnly dedicated them- 
selves to the Christian education of young girls, 
and further proposed to train religious teachers 
who should go wherever their services were asked 
for. 

Blessed Julie, who had not ceased suffering 
from physical pains for thirty years, twenty-two 
of which she had been confined to her couch by 
paralysis, was miraculously cured on the Feast of 
the Sacred Heart, June 8, 1804, and thus enabled 
during the twelve years of life that remained to 
her to labor actively for the glory of God, to 



OF NAMUR 123 

travel about and do all the business required for 
the establishment of fifteen houses of her Insti- 
tute. The Foundress zealously devoted herself to 
the formation of her little community, taught her 
children the ways of the spiritual life and to at- 
tain the double end of the Institute secured for 
them teachers, among whom were Fathers Varin, 
Enfantin and Thomas, the last named a former 
professor in the Sorbonne. The first regular 
schools were opened in the autumn of 1806. God 
visibly blessed the work. The schools prospered, 
the number of subjects increased, so that the 
Foundress was able to respond to the many appli- 
cations for new foundations and establish houses 
in several dioceses of France and Belgium. Among 
the Belgian foundations was Namur, which in 
1809 became the mother-house of the Sisters of 
Notre Dame. 

After the death of Blessed Julie, which occurred 
on April 8, 1816, the co-foundress, Mother St. Jo- 
seph, was elected Mother General. It was during 
her generalate that the system of school manage- 
ment still in use among the Sisters of Notre Dame 
was drawn up; twenty-two new foundations were 
made, and a colony of Dutch Sisters was trained 
to form a separate family of Blessed Julie's daugh- 
ters, known in this country as the Sisters of Notre 
Dame, Cleveland, Ohio, or German Sisters of 
Notre Dame. Under Mother Ignatius, the third 
Mother General, the first colony of Sisters crossed 
the Atlantic to open a house in Cincinnati, Ohio. 
The term of Mother Constantine was marked by the 
formal approbation of the Rule by Gregory XVI. 
in 1844; the first mission to England in 1845, to 
California in 1851, and Guatemala in 1859. Under 
Mother Aloyse, twenty houses were established in 



124 SISTERS OF NOTRE DAME 

Belgium, England and America. Her successor, 
Mother Aimee de Jesu, made foundations in Congo 
Free State, Zambesi, Kronstadt and Orange River 
Colony, South Africa. During this generalate 
Mother Julie Billiart was solemnly beatified by 
Pius X., May 13, 1906. Mother Marie Aloyse was 
the first Superior General who visited the Ameri- 
can houses. The present Mother General, Mother 
Maria Julienne, was elected in April, 1912. 

In 1840, John Baptist Purcell, first Archbishop 
of Cincinnati, asked for a colony of Sisters of 
Notre Dame from Namur for his metropolitan 
city. Accordingly eight Sisters embarked at Ant- 
werp on September 9 and arrived in Cincinnati 
on October 30. His Grace gave them a truly cor- 
dial and parental reception and conducted them 
to the Sisters of Charity, whose guests they re- 
mained for two weeks. Sister Louis de Gonzague, 
the Superior of this band of pioneers, rented a 
small house on Sycamore Street opposite what 
was then the cathedral, where the Jesuit Church, 
St. Francis Xavier, now stands. In this unsuitable 
abode the Sisters remained but a few weeks. 
Favored by Providence they were enabled to pur- 
chase the Spencer residence, located about a 
square from the cathedral, and a few days before 
Christmas they were installed in their new house. 
This house was considered one of the best and 
most elegant of the city, a claim which was well 
substantiated, as it has remained in a good state 
of preservation to this day, though it forms but a 
fractional part of the large pile of buildings com- 
posing historic "Sixth Street Convent." Hasty 
preparations enabled the Sisters to open simul- 
taneously a boarding school and academy, or day 
school, and a free school on January 18, 1841. 




H 

H 

O 
H P 



3 3 



3 A 



o 



OF NAMUR 125 

From the first day the attendance was satisfactory. 
The ever increasing number of pupils soon 
crowded the Sisters out of their community rooms 
and obliged them to purchase some adjoining 
property where a commodious wooden building, 
called by the boarders "Colonade Row," was built. 
In 1843 the Academy was incorporated under the 
name, "St. Mary's Female Educational Institute of 
Cincinnati." In 1843, when six more Sisters ar- 
rived from Namur, a new house was founded in 
Toledo, Ohio. Sister Louis de Gonzague was ap- 
pointed Superior of the new foundation, and Sis- 
ter Louise, one of the original group, was named 
Superior of Cincinnati, and of all the houses to 
be founded east of the Rocky Mountains. The 
schools in Cincinnati grew apace, so that in the 
course of ten years three buildings were erected 
and pulled down again to be rebuilt on a larger 
scale. The Sisters took charge of parochial schools 
in various parts of the city, teaching there all day 
but returning to their convent home each evening. 
A house was opened in Boston, Mass., in 1848, and 
one in Dayton, Ohio, in 1849. Foundations in 
Lowell, Mass., Roxbury, Mass., Columbus, O., Sa- 
lem, Mass., Philadelphia, Pa., and Lawrence, 
Mass., followed. In the meantime the ever in- 
creasing number of pupils at "Sixth Street" and 
the encroachments of the rapidly growing busi- 
ness part of the city necessitated the removal of 
the boarding-school to a more favorable location. 
In 1859 a place suitable for this purpose was pur- 
chased near Reading, Ohio, about ten miles from 
Cincinnati, and to this ideal home, "Mount Notre 
Dame," the boarding-school was transferred in 
1860. About the same time the Jesuit Fathers in 
charge of St. Xavier Church built a parochial 



126 SISTERS OF NOTRE DAME 

school, almost adjoining the Convent on Sixth 
Street, for the children of their parish, and thus 
the entire pile of buildings which originally ac- 
commodated boarders, day scholars and parish 
children was left for Academy and Community 
purposes. In 1867, in response to the oft-repeated 
desire of Archbishop Purcell, another Academy 
was opened at Court Street in Cincinnati, for the 
convenience of the pupils residing in the western 
section of the city. Sister Superior Louise for 
forty-six years wisely governed the steadily grow- 
ing Institute in America. At her death in 1866, 
she left in thirty convents, over eight hundred re- 
ligious, teaching twenty-five thousand children. 
The first novice she had clothed in the religious 
habit, Sister Julia, having been her support and 
counsellor for years, succeeded her as Provincial 
Superior, and held the office for fifteen years. 
She made fifteen foundations, the principal one 
being that of Trinity College, Washington, D. C, 
an institution devoted solely to the higher educa- 
tion of women. In the ten years of its existence 
it has more than realized the hopes of its zealous 
and enlightened foundress. Sister Superior Agnes 
Mary continued the work along the lines traced 
out by her two predecessors until her death in 
1910. The present Provincial, Sister Superior 
Mary Borgia, was appointed in April, 1911. 

Simplicity, largeness of mind and freedom from 
little feminine weaknesses have ever been the dis- 
tinguishing traits of the Sisters of Notre Dame 
and their pupils. Though time and experience 
have brought additions to the first constitutions 
drawn up by Blessed Mother Julie and Father 
Varin, none of the fundamental articles have been 
changed. The sole exterior labor of the Sisters 



OF NAMUR 127 

of Notre Dame is the education of young girls in 
concert with the parochial clergy. The Institute 
is governed by a Superior General residing at the 
mother-house in Namur. She appoints the pro- 
vincials and local superiors, decides upon founda- 
tions and visits the secondary houses. The dis- 
tinction between choir and lay Sister has never 
existed among the Sisters of Notre Dame; each 
Sister is put to the work for which her Superior 
deems her most fitted. Though not cloistered, 
the Sisters do not leave their convents save for 
necessity; they pay no visits to relations, friends 
or public buildings. According to the needs of 
the schools, the Sisters pass from house to house, 
and even from province to province, as obedience 
enjoins. 

There are three novitiates in America; at Cin- 
cinnati, for the central part of the United States; 
at Waltham, Mass., for the Eastern states, and at 
San Jose for the California province. A sound 
judgment, good health, aptitude for the work of 
the Institute, a fair education with unblemished 
reputation, good morals and an inclination to 
piety are the qualifications deemed indispensable 
for applicants to the Institute. "Great souls are 
needed for the great work of our Institute," 
Blessed Julie said. "Souls of faith, able to sacrifice 
themselves, characters which know no difficulty 
where the glory of God is concerned." 



128 SISTERS OF PROVIDENCE 



SISTERS OF PROVIDENCE OF 
ST. MARY-OF-THE-WOODS * 

1840 

Among the first religious conimunities to cross 
the Alleghenies was a band of Sisters of Provi- 
dence of Ruille-sur-Loir, France, who, in 1840, 
founded near Terre Haute, Indiana, a convent 
known as St. Mary-of- the- Woods, and at the head 
of the little band was a religious whose name, we 
trust, will soon be raised to the altars of Mother- 
Church. It stands for all that is noblest and most 
beautiful in the religious life, for a charity and 

zeal carried to heroism — Mother Theodore Guerin. 

a- 

At Etables, Cote du Nord, France, a Breton sea- 
port town, Mother Theodore, Anne Therese 
Guerin, was born on October 2, 1798. Her father, 
Laurent Guerin, was a naval officer in the service 
of the Emperor Napoleon I. Returning home be- 
fore the Russian campaign of 1812, he met with a 
violent death at the hands of brigands near Avig- 
non. This tragic bereavement cast a deep shade 
of seriousness over the otherwise bright and hap- 
py childhood of little Anne Therese. Intelligent 
and gifted, a born leader, and withal possessed 
of profound and correct judgment and the most 
valuable qualities of heart, she early devoted all 
in desire and in intention to the service of the 
King of kings. The consent of her invalid mother 
to her following her vocation was obtained only 
after long delay, and it was at twenty-five years 

*"Especially prepared from material furnished by the Sisters of 
Providence of St. Mary-of-the-Woods, St. Mary's, Vigo Co., Indiana. 




A SISTER OF PROVIDENCE OF ST. MARY-OF-THE-WOODS 
St. Mary's, Vigo County, Indiana 



OF ST. MARY-OF-THE-WOODS 129 

that Mile. Guerin asked and obtained entrance to 
the novitiate of Ruille-sur-Loir — the mother-house 
of the Sisters of Providence. 

This religious organization was founded in 1806 
by M. l'Abbe Dujarie, who, in 1803, had been 
appointed to the borough of Ruille-sur-Loir and 
the surrounding country. The good Cure had 
found the people of his mission in most deplor- 
able condition; the extreme poverty in which the 
majority of them lived was exceeded only by the 
moral condition into which they had fallen. Sick 
at heart but undaunted the zealous Abbe appealed 
for help to the few amongst his parishioners who 
preserved the faith, and a few who were provided 
with ample means. 

Having presented a picture of the misery and 
needs of his people it was some time before those 
were found who would devote themselves, exclu- 
sively, to instructing the children and caring for 
the sick. 

Two young women offered themselves for this 
work and zealously entered upon it under the di- 
rection of the Abbe. In time others were drawn 
to imitate the example of these generous women, 
whose labors in a distant part of the parish neces- 
sitated their occupation of a house apart from 
their own families and friends. "Little Provi- 
dence" was the name they gave to the abode 
wherein they dwelt for the continuance of the 
work they had undertaken. 

Seeing the number of earnest workers es- 
tablished in "Little Providence," the Abbe soon re- 
alized the need of a rule of life for them. In com- 
pliance with their desire to be formed into a com- 
munity with the exercise of a spiritual life, Abbe 
Dujarie arranged to place seven of these fervent 



130 SISTERS OF PROVIDENCE 

women under the care of the good nuns at Beauge 
that there lessons in discipline and practices of 
the interior life might be learned. Nearly a year 
passed before "Little Providence" welcomed home 
their "Sisters" to whom a religious costume had 
been given; the habit closely resembled that worn 
at present by the Sisters of Providence. 

The advent of the Sisters gave a new impetus to 
the work in the district of Ruille-sur-Loir, sub- 
jects presented themselves for admission into the 
little community and neighboring cures soon be- 
gan to solicit establishments for their parishes. 

In 1818 the new community admitted to their 
number Mile. Josephine Zoe Roscoat, of a noble 
and ancient family of Brittany. 

For some time Mile, du Roscoat had been de- 
sirous of especially consecrating her life to the 
service of God, but the feeble health of her father 
— Count du Roscoat — caused her to sacrifice, for 
a time, the satisfying of her desires. Upon the 
death of her father, the Countess placed no ob- 
stacles to prevent the fulfillment of her daughter's 
vocation. Mile, du Roscoat remaining at "Little 
Providence," completed her term of probation ac- 
cording to the conditions imposed by Abbe Du- 
jarie. Mile, du Roscoat was the first of those in 
"Little Providence" to make open profession of 
vows; she was also the first to be elected Superior 
and the first to bear the title of Mother, under 
the revised statutes which Abbe Dujarie gave the 
new Congregation. Mother du Roscoat has, there- 
fore, always been considered by the Sisters of 
Providence as their foundress. 

In Easter week of 1822 Mother du Roscoat be- 
gan a visitation of the various establishments then 
conducted by her Sisters. 



OF ST. MARY-OF-THE-WOODS 131 

On June 25, having been seized with typhoid 
fever, Mother du Roscoat passed away after only 
four years of religious life, but years of great 
accomplishments. It was in the fall of the year 
following the death of Mother du Roscoat that 
Mile. Guerin entered the convent at Ruille-sur- 
Loir, where she received the name of Sister St. 
Theodore. 

So evident was her progress in the highest paths 
of spirituality, and so marked her natural en- 
dowments, that on the day of her profession she 
was appointed Superior of the house in Rennes, 
one of the largest establishments of the Congre- 
gation. Here, and later at Soulaines — where she 
was decorated by the French Academy for per- 
sonal qualifications and her efficient work in the 
schools — she spent fifteen years. 

In 1840, in response to the urgent request of the 
Rt. Rev. Gelestin de la Hailandiere, bishop of the 
diocese of Vincennes (now Indianapolis) , Indiana, 
six Sisters of Providence were granted permission 
by the Superior General at Ruille-sur-Loir to un- 
dertake the establishment of a foundation in 
America. Sister Theodore was selected to be their 
Superior. 

In the forests of Indiana, Mother Theodore 
found her life-work. Here amid poverty, hard- 
ships, sufferings, — interior and exterior, — was 
brought to completion in her own soul the beau- 
tiful edifice of religious perfection, whose mem- 
ory is still a guiding star to her daughters. 

Sheltered at first in two rooms of a poor small 
farm-house, the Sisters had scarcely gathered to- 
gether a sufficient provision for the winter when 
a disastrous fire reduced the little pioneer band 
to destitution. Mother Theodore returned to 



132 SISTERS OF PROVIDENCE 

France in search of aid, but was hastily recalled 
by the troubles which had come upon the com- 
munity in her absence. Narrowly escaping death 
by shipwreck en route, she returned to St. Mary's 
only to find that the Bishop — though pious and 
well-intentioned — had, through indiscreet zeal, 
well-nigh wrecked the little craft of the struggling 
community. 

The period of six years which followed was one 
of unmixed and bitter suffering in the life of 
Mother Theodore and her Sisters, these trials ter- 
minating only by the resignation of the Right Rev- 
erend Bishop, who retired to his hereditary estate 
in France. 

The Indiana foundation became independent of 
Ruille in 1843, owing to the distance and the 
special wish of the Bishop of Vincennes. 

For fifteen years Mother Theodore, though suf- 
fering from many long and painful illnesses, la- 
bored in America. Aided by the saintly Sister 
St. Francis Xavier as Novice Mistress, she molded 
to the religious virtues the members of the rapidly 
growing Congregation and established schools for 
the young in many parts of the Ohio valley. Her 
heroic spirt of self-denial made her recoil before 
no sacrifice. 

God in His own good time crowned her work 
with a superabundance of heavenly blessings; her 
last years were marked by undiminished labors 
and brightened by celestial visitations and rare 
graces, and her death in 1854 was the beginning 
of a veneration and religious devotion which has 
steadily increased.* 

That Mother Theodore builded better than she 
knew is shown by the prosperity of the institu- 

*At the time of this writing the diocesan process for the beatifica- 
tion of the "Servant of God" has just been completed. 




XJ1 

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EH o 
w 



OF ST. MARY-OF-THE-WOODS 133 

tion, — St. Mary-of-the-Woods, now recognized one 
of the foremost among the educational institu- 
tions of the country. 

The Rules of the Congregation were approved 
by the Holy See in 1887. Academies, parochial 
schools, orphanages and industrial schools scat- 
tered throughout the states of Indiana, Illinois, 
Michigan, Nebraska, Massachusetts and Maryland, 
with more than twenty thousand children, are 
now in charge of the Sisters of Providence. 
Among the most interesting of the recent founda- 
tions is the Seminary of Our Lady, opened in 1904, 
at Mount Marion, Washington, D. G. In memory 
of the Jubilee of the Definition of the Immaculate 
Conception, celebrated that year, the new institu- 
tion received the name "The Immaculata." 

At St. Mary-of-the-Woods, the beautiful white 
stone church, the imposing academy and college, 
the mother-house, the novitiate, the chaplain's 
residence and the Woodland hotel, form a strik- 
ing contrast to the primitive log or frame struc- 
tures that preceded them. 

"You were founded by saints," said an eminent 
prelate in explanation of the evident blessing 
which rests upon St. Mary-of-the-Woods. Therein 
of a certainty lies the secret of the prosperity of 
the Sisters of Providence of St. Mary-of-the- 
Woods. 



134 SISTERS OF THE HOLY GROSS 



SISTERS OF THE HOLY FAMILY* 

(Colored Sisters) 

1842 

The Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy 
Family was founded in New Orleans, Louisiana, 
in the year 1842. 

The members of the community are zealous 
colored women interested in the Christian educa- 
tion of the children of their race. 

The mother-house and the novitiate of the Con- 
gregation is located at No. 717 Orleans Street, New 
Orleans, Louisiana. 

The Sisters have charge of establishments in the 
Archdiocese of New Orleans and the dioceses of 
Galveston and Little Rock. 



*Catholic Directory of 1912, published by P. J. Kenedy & Sons, 
New York. 



SISTERS OF THE HOLY CROSS* 

1843 

Among the many religious orders having their 
origin in France during the half century of reli- 
gious renaissance which followed the Napoleonic 
period there, we find the Congregation of the Sis- 
ters of the Holy Cross. 

At the hands of their founder, the illustrious 
and saintly Abbe Moreau, Canon of the Cathedral 

*Especially prepared from "A Story of Fifty Years," from the 
Annals of the Sisters of the Holy Cross. Furnished by the Sisters 
of the Holy Cross, St. Mary's Convent, Notre Dame, Indiana. 



SISTERS OF THE HOLY CROSS 135 

of LeMans and Professor of Divinity in the Sem- 
inary, the first candidates for the new community 
received the habit on September 29, 1841, in the 
Convent of the Good Shepherd at LeMans, four 
religious being received into what was then called 
the Congregation of the Seven Dolors. The Sis- 
ters made their novitiate at the Convent of the 
Good Shepherd where they learned the first les- 
sons of the religious state and laid deep the foun- 
dation on which they were to rear the structure 
of their spiritual' life. 

At the end of a year they were admitted to the 
religious profession under the formal title of the 
Sisters of the Holy Cross, and under the special 
patronage of Our Lady of the Seven Dolors. 

The zeal of the Abbe Moreau left no means un- 
tried to perfect a foundation which he hoped, in 
the designs of Providence, would become a not 
unimportant factor in the work of Christian Edu- 
cation. In the first days of the community he 
placed before them a plan of government and a 
summary of the obligations incumbent upon them 
in their double capacity of religious and instruc- 
tors of the young by both precept and example. 

Father Moreau realized that every age has its 
special needs, and, while inculcating the virtues 
of the hidden life and a sanctity based on a per- 
fect observance of the vows and virtues of the 
religious state, he so ordered the governing prin- 
ciples of the congregation as to meet the demands 
of the times in presenting the best that an educa- 
tional body could offer without in anywise allow- 
ing it to turn from the way of the Holy Cross. 

When the noble young missioner, Father Sorin, 
who had left his beloved France to labor amongst 
the Indians in the New World, feeling the need of 



136 



SISTERS OF THE HOLY CROSS 



Sisters in his missions, wrote to Father Moreau 
asking his aid in this need, Father Moreau at once 
arranged for the departure of some Sisters from 
his new community, and on June 6,_1843^ four Sis- 
ters of the Holy Cross left France to come to the 
United States, to the missions near the now far- 
famed Notre Dame, in St. Joseph County, Indiana. 

Before long Father Sorin saw the necessity of 
establishing the Sisters permanently, the zealous 
and earnest spirit shown by them soon attracted 
others who wished to join in their religious life. 
Father Sorin consulted the Rt. Rev. Celestine de 
la Hailandiere, Bishop of the Diocese, with a view 
of obtaining the required authorization for es- 
tablishing an American novitiate for the Sisters 
of the Holy Cross. The bishop, however, refused 
to allow such a foundation in his diocese, as he 
had invited the Sisters of Providence to come from 
France and make their foundation in his diocese, 
he feared two educational institutions could not 
be supported. Father Sorin did not share the 
view of the bishop, with prophetic insight he 
traced the geographical circles from which each 
of the two Sisterhoods would draw their immedi- 
ate patronage and the lines did not conflict. How- 
ever, he submitted to the bishop's ruling, trusting 
that God would show His Will in the matter. His 
faith and hope had speedy reward. In Bertrand, 
a little village a few miles from Notre Dame, on 
the Michigan side of the Indiana-Michigan State 
line, Father Sorin saw a possible location for the 
Sisters, beyond the limits of the diocese of Vin- 
cennes, yet not too far removed from their own 
missionary and community center. 

After prayerful deliberation Father Sorin laid 
the case before Bishop Lefevre of Detroit, and 




A SISTER OF THE HOLY CROSS 
St. Mary's Convent, Notre Dame, Indiana 



SISTERS OF THE HOLY CROSS 137 

asked the privilege of establishing the Sisters at 
Bertrand in the Michigan diocese. Bishop Lef evre 
at once granted the necessary permission and sup- 
plemented it by words of approbation and encour- 
agement. On July 16, 1844, the pioneer band of 
Sisters from France, and four American postu- 
lants, took up their abode in the dwelling secured 
for them from Mr. Bertrand after whom the vil- 
lage was named. 

The Bishop of Vincennes, on hearing this, ap- 
pealed to Bishop Lefevre in such a manner that 
the Bishop of Michigan withdrew the permission 
he had granted. Father Sorin went to Detroit for 
a personal interview with the bishop and to bring 
about a final settlement of the matter. His visit 
was most opportune, for Bishop Purcell of Cin- 
cinnati, arriving while he was there, the case was 
submitted to him. After studying the situation, 
Bishop Purcell decided that Bishop de la Hailan- 
diere's fears were without ground. As a result of 
this conference, Bishop Lefevre withdrew his pro- 
hibition, renewed his first permission and gave 
to Father Sorin and the Sisters of the Holy Cross 
his paternal and episcopal benediction. 

The Summer of 1844 was a time of preparation 
for the postulants at Bertrand, and a time of anx- 
iety and responsibility to the founder of this com- 
munity in the New World. In September of that 
year the first ceremony of the "reception of the 
habit" took place, in October three more sisters 
from France joined the pioneer colony, and on 
December 8, the second "reception" was held. 
The Community of the Sisters of the Holy Cross 
began to show organization and Bertrand, Michi- 
gan, was the seat of the humble mother-house. 

In 1845, a grant of 5,000 francs by the Society 



138 



SISTERS OF THE HOLY CROSS 



of the Propagation of the Faith, and a donation 
of seventy-seven acres of land from the inhab- 
itants of Bertrand made it possible to carry on 
and even to extend the work of the Sisters, a new 
building was erected, and new subjects continued 
to present themselves for admission into the Con- 
gregation. 

In 1846 Father Sorin was recalled to his native 
land and after some months there, returned with 
a number of French Sisters and postulants who 
were desirous of affiliation with the Holy Cross 
Sisters in their American missions. 

The foundation years then gave place to the 
period of actual organization, and from 1848 to 
1855 the Community took shape along positive 
lines laid down by the intrepid Father Sorin, who, 
known in those days as Father Superior, and later 
as Father Provincial, had all the cares and all 
the anxieties regarding matters spiritual and tem- 
poral, that fall to the lot of a founder. 

Inconveniences notwithstanding, the school at 
Bertrand had all the pupils that could be accom- 
modated, though up to this time, because of the 
scarcity of teachers, little could be offered. In 
1850 the roll showed fifty boarders, and everything 
so well organized as to justify the publication of 
a prospectus setting forth the advantages of St. 
Mary's Academy, as the new school was called. 
In January, 1851, the State of Michigan recognized 
St. Mary's and granted a charter to insure the 
carrying on of the good work and at the same 
time to give the public confidence in the institu- 
tion. 

In the year 1851 Eliza Gillespie of Lancaster, 
Ohio, on her way to Chicago, where she was to 
enter a convent, accompanied by her mother, vis- 



SISTERS OF THE HOLY GROSS 139 

ited Notre Dame for the purpose of saying goodby 
to her brother Neal, then preparing for the priest- 
hood. During this visit the needs and mission 
of the Sisters of the Holy Cross appealed to her 
so forcibly that she decided to spend a few days 
at the convent at Bertrand. 

After some days spent in prayer, in silence and 
in careful deliberation, Eliza Gillespie, whose an- 
cestry in this country takes us back to 1765, an- 
nounced her decision to remain with the Sisters of 
the Holy Cross, and this after having seen the pri- 
vations and the hardships that made up their 
humble life. It was at once arranged by the coun- 
cil at St. Mary's for the new postulant to make 
her novitiate at the mother-house in France, and 
there be thoroughly grounded in the principles 
of the religious life. Immediately after her re- 
ception, on the feast of the Patronage of St. Jo- 
seph in 1853, Eliza Gillespie, as Sister Mary of St. 
Angela, accompanied by Sister Mary Emily, left 
for France, where, under the guidance of the Very 
Reverend Superior General, Father Moreau, she 
passed her period of probation in the convent of 
the Sisters of Bon Secours, at Caen, and with such 
evidences of a marked vocation that, by dispensa- 
tion she made her religious profession the same 
year on December 15. February 2, 1854, found 
her again at St. Mary's, Bertrand, where she was 
charged with the direction of the school, and from 
that time until her death, in 1887, she continued 
to be associated with the administrative body of 
the now flourishing community. 

With her whole heart in the work, Mother An- 
gela took up the first task allotted her and at once 
showed the wisdom of those who had made the 
appointment. Her strong intellect, broad culture 



140 SISTERS OF THE HOLY GROSS 

and high sense of the responsibility resting upon 
the Christian woman, led her to formulate the 
plan of education which St. Mary's has ever striven 
to carry out. 

In the year of 1855, all objections on the part 
of the See of Vincennes having been withdrawn, 
it was resolved to remove St. Mary's to a more 
suitable site, which Father Sorin, after much dif- 
ficulty, had secured for the Sisters. A sufficient 
appropriation for the erection of a mother-house 
was made, and on April 24, 1855, the corner stone 
was blessed by Father Sorin and the title "St. 
Mary's of the Immaculate Conception" given to 
the institution. In May of that year the Industrial 
school, conducted by the Sisters in the nearby 
town of Mishawaka, was transferred to an em- 
inence overlooking the ravine east of the present 
building at St. Mary's, and was known as St. Jo- 
seph's School. However, the demands for Sisters 
in other lines of duty made it necessary to discon- 
tinue the work of training in the industrial arts. 

By September of 1855 the Community and 
Academy was entirely removed from their first 
home, in the little village of Bertrand, and estab- 
lished at the present beautiful site of "St. Mary's." 
Between the years 1847 and 1855 several founda- 
tions were made in Michigan and Indiana by the 
Sisters. 

In 1857 Father Moreau came from France to 
make his first visit. It was at this time the sever- 
ance of the Sisters of the Holy Cross in the United 
States from the mother-house in France was de- 
termined upon, but not until 1862 was the division 
finally made. The foundation at St. Laurent, Can- 
ada, made in 1847, by a colony of Sisters from 
France and four from St. Mary's remains under 




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SISTERS OR.THE HOLY CROSS 141 

the authority of France, while since 1869, by Papal 
recognition, the Sisters of the Holy Cross in the 
United States are a distinct Order, with St. Mary's 
as the mother-house and the site of the general 
novitiate. 

The first regular election of officers was held at 
St. Mary's in August of 1869, and the first Council 
of Administration was composed of Mother M. 
Angela as Mother Superior; Mother M. Charles, 
First Assistant; Mother M. Eusebia, Second Assist- 
ant; Mother M. of the Ascension, Mistress of No- 
vices, and Mother M. Emily, Stewardess, — all able 
women, and all thoroughly imbued with a deeply 
religious spirit. Rules in accordance with the 
Constitution were drawn up and with the Direc- 
tory were issued in 1870. In 1889, Apostolic ap- 
probation of the new Constitutions of the Con- 
gregation of the Sisters of the Holy Cross was 
granted for a term of seven years. 

In 1861, animated by Christian charity and 
zeal, the Sisters of the Holy Cross responded to 
the country's call of need by volunteering 
to go to the succor of the sick and wounded 
in the military hospitals and on the field of bat- 
tle. From the beginning of the Civil War period 
until its close, they gave their untiring services. 
The war records of those momentous years (1861- 
1865) bear the names of nearly four score Sisters 
of the Holy Cross, with Mother Angela in active 
charge of their work. 

The chronology of the period from 1865 to 1880 
opens with the founding of Our Lady's Journal, 
the Ave Maria, and St. Mary's claims a small 
share in the honor of the event through Mother 
Angela's brief term as assistant to the Very Rev. 
Father Sorin, founder and first editor. 



142 SISTERS OF THE HOLY CROSS 

Two special features of the community, for 
many years peculiar to St. Mary's, are the summer 
school and the scholasticate. Many years before 
the Chautauqua movement, generally considered 
initiatory of the summer schools now so common 
throughout the country, vacation classes were car- 
ried on at St. Mary's; regular lecture courses were 
given, laboratory and class work prosecuted, and 
the best in pedagogics inculcated in theory and 
practice. The scholasticate, according to the Con- 
stitutions of the Sisters of the Holy Cross, is a 
period after the noviceship and before the final 
vows, extending over several years, during which 
time special attention is given to the science and 
art of teaching. This institution has ever been 
regarded as most important, though the pressing 
demands for sisters at home and on the missions 
not infrequently interfere with its functions, leav- 
ing to the summer school part of the training for 
the young teachers. 

Interesting among the many educational insti- 
tutions of the Congregation is St. Catherine's Nor- 
mal Institute in Baltimore, a normal school for 
Catholic teachers, founded in 1875 by Mother 
Angela. 

The Sisters also have the care of many orphan 
asylums throughout the States and have many of 
the finest and best-equipped hospitals in the 
country; training schools for nurses have recently 
been established at several of their hospitals. 

In 1898 the younger generation of the Sisters of 
the Holy Cross had an opportunity to show their 
spirit of devotedness to their country and serve 
in the hospitals of the South during the late Span- 
ish-American trouble. In January of 1899, the 
Sisters were ordered to Cuba by transport Pan- 



SISTERS OF THE HOLY GROSS 143 

ama, a prize vessel captured from the Spanish. 
Arrived in Matanzas, orders were received from 
the Surgeon-General to return to the United 
States, and, soon after, the services of the Sisters 
were no longer required. Sister Brendan, Direc- 
tress of Mt. Carmel Hospital, in Columbus, Ohio, 
at the instance of Governor Bushnell, was given 
charge of two hospital trains which were sent 
South to bring home the sick soldiers of the Ohio 
regiments. Sister Brendan also went to Porto 
Rico on the same merciful errand. 

The brief term of the Sisters was officially recog- 
nized, and the archives at St. Mary's hold high 
prized testimonials from officials, including rec- 
ord of a personal tribute from President McKin- 
ley, as to the efficiency, devotedness and "splendid 
military discipline" of the Sisters of the Holy 
Cross, who felt honored to be associated in its 
hour of need with their beloved country. 

Conditions in the world of education have 
brought about many changes in things pedagogi- 
cal since the establishment of St. Mary's, and, as 
ever, St. Mary's has seized upon the salient points 
of good in the new methods, while holding fast to 
the fundamental, time-tried principles of the old 
system. 

A little town in itself has St. Mary's become, the 
loved home of the Sisters of the Holy Cross, with 
its church, its convent, novitiate, infirmaries, the 
academy and the connected buildings and the 
newer college building, for in 1898 St. Mary's was 
empowered to confer the degrees of higher educa- 
tion. 

Since the death of Mother Angela, several ad- 
ministrations have ruled, wisely and well, and 
now, in this year of 1912, in the corps of officers 



144 SISTERS OF 

composing the Administrative body of the Congre- 
gation are: Mother M. Perpetua, Superior Gen- 
eral; Mother M. Aquina, Local Superior; Mother 
M. Pauline, Directress of the College and Acad- 
emy; Mother M. Barbara, Mistress of Novices, and 
Mother M. Cyriaca, Stewardess. Under this effi- 
cient staff, St. Mary's and the Sisters of the Holy 
Cross are today fulfilling the promises and realiz- 
ing the hopes of the past and proving active fac- 
tors for good in Church and State, and successful 
promoters of the truly Christian, truly Catholic 
spirit in the home and in society. 



SISTERS OF THE GOOD SHEP- 
HERD* 

1843 

The Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of 
the Good Shepherd of Angers, or "Sisters of the 
Good Shepherd" as they are more generally 
known, were founded in France in 1835 by Mother 
Mary Euphrasia Pelletier, who died in the odor of 
sanctity in 1868 and was declared Venerable by 
Leo XIII., December 11, 1897. The Congregation 
as established by Mother Mary of St. Euphrasia 
Pelletier is a branch of the Religious of Our Lady 
of Refuge, founded in 1641 by Blessed John Eudes. 

The Sisters of the Good Shepherd soon spread 
beyond the confines of France to Italy, to Ger- 
many and other parts of Europe. At the invita- 
tion of the Saintly Bishop Flaget five Sisters came 

*Especially prepared from material furnished hy the Sisters of 
the Good Shepherd, Monastery of the Good Shepherd, Carthage, Ohio. 




VENERABLE MOTHER MARY OF ST. EUPHRASIA PELLETIER 

Founder and first Superior General of the Congregation of Our Lady of Charity 

of the Good Shepherd of Angers. Died April 24, 1868. Declared 

venerable by Pope Leo XITT. December 11, 1897 



- 



THE GOOD SHEPHERD 145 

to the United States in 1843 and established a Mon- 
astery in the city of Louisville, Kentucky. 

Animated with the zeal of their holy foundress 
the Sisters have carried on her noble work in 
the United States and today they have six large 
Provinces with more than fifty Monasteries 
throughout the States. 

The special object of the Sisters of the Good 
Shepherd is to labor for the preservation and edu- 
cation of destitute, innocent girls, and for the con- 
version and sanctification of those fallen women 
whom Providence brings to their doors. In this 
work for the amelioration of their sex, the Sisters 
make no distinction of class, color, creed or na- 
tionality. 

Those given to the care of the Sisters are placed 
in any of the five departments established in their 
monasteries. The Preservation Class, which is com- 
posed of orphans and other poor, destitute girls, 
who have been rescued from surroundings that 
would prove prejudicial to their moral well being; 
in many cases children of very respectable par- 
ents, too poor to afford their daughters a convent 
education and who wish to secure for them thor- 
oughly Catholic training, are received in this de- 
partment for a nominal sum. All the Preserva- 
tion Children are given a solid education and 
taught industries that will enable them to earn an 
honest livelihood upon leaving the shelter of the 
school at the expiration of their eighteenth year. 
As a reward for application and good conduct the 
children who are deserving receive training in 
vocal and instrumental music: — in some classes 
they are given instruction in bookkeeping, sten- 
ography, typewriting, etc. Colored children are 
formed into a separate class. 
10 



146 SISTERS OF 

The Penitent Class is an entirely separate de- 
partment for wayward girls and unfortunate 
women. Many of these seek the protection and 
motherly care of the Sisters of their own volition, 
while others are sent to the monastery by their 
parents or guardians or brought by officers of the 
law. The Penitents are usually employed at ma- 
chine and laundry work and are given every op- 
portunity of mental, moral and physical improve- 
ment. A separate reformatory for colored women 
is established in every monastery to which these 
are admitted. 

To foster a spirit of piety and devotion among 
their charges the Sisters of the Good Shepherd 
have established the Sodality of the Blessed Vir- 
gin among them. The children of the Preserva- 
tion Class who have received their first Holy Com- 
munion, and the girls and women of the Penitent 
Class who have reformed and are converted, are 
eligible to become members. Membership in the 
Children of Mary imports a certain distinction 
and imposes the obligation of seconding the efforts 
of the mistress of the class. 

Members of the Penitent Class, who have given 
ample proof of their sincere conversion and who 
desire to consecrate their services to the welfare 
of the Penitent Class, are invested with a simple 
black habit and are called Consecrates. As as- 
sistants to the Mistress of the class the Consecrates 
exercise a salutary influence by word and exam- 
ple upon the raw material in the class. Without 
assuming the responsibility of vows the Conse- 
crates thus become a powerful factor in the work 
of the Reformatory. 

The crowning work of the Sisters of the Good 
Shepherd is the Magdalen Sisterhood. For wise 



THE GOOD SHEPHERD 147 

reasons the Sisters of the Good Shepherd do not 
admit women to membership in their Congrega- 
tion, who at any time were members of the Pres- 
ervation or Penitent Classes, or who are laboring 
under disabilities of birth, family connections and 
the like. To meet the desire of chosen souls who 
have renounced the world and feel called to a 
higher and holier life, after having passed through 
the Penitent Class, Mother Mary Euphrasia es- 
tablished a separate sisterhood called the Magda- 
lens. Many women who have not been members 
of the Penitent Class, but who are desirous of 
living a life of perfect seclusion, penance and 
prayer, join this sisterhood. The Magdalens oc- 
cupy a separate building on the premises of the 
Sisters of the Good Shepherd and are governed 
by a directress appointed by the provincial su- 
perior. They make the three vows of religion, 
live and dress according to the rule of Carmelites 
and are under the jurisdiction of the Bishop in 
whose diocese they reside. The Magdalen Sisters 
observe perpetual cloister and recite the Office of 
the Blessed Virgin. They give about seven hours 
a day to spiritual exercises and devote the remain- 
ing time to some quiet employment, such as sew- 
ing, embroidery and domestic duties. 

As a Congregation of Missionary women, the 
Sisters of the Good Shepherd were approved by 
Pope Gregory XVI. in 1835 and by Pope Leo XIII. 
in 1897. 

Observing the Rule of St. Augustine as defined 
by the Constitutions approved by Pope Benedict 
XIV. in 1741 for the Order of Our Lady of Refuge, 
amended and adopted to meet modern exigencies 
by the Cardinal-Protector of the Order of the 
Good Shepherd in 1897, the Sisters live a strict 



148 



SISTERS OF 



community life, and add to the ordinary vows a 
vow to labor for the conversion of fallen women. 

Though all share in the labors of the Monastery, 
yet for the furtherance of their especial work the 
religious of the Order of the Good Shepherd are 
formed into two branches : — the Cloistered Sisters 
who never leave the grounds of their respective 
Monasteries, except when sent to other houses 
within the province; they follow spiritual exer- 
cises dictated by the mild and prudent spirit of 
St. Francis de Sales, their spiritual directory and 
part of their Constitutions being from the inspired 
pen of this gentle Saint. These Sisters preside 
over the different Classes and direct the work of 
the Institute. 

The Outdoor Sisters, who are exempt from the 
enclosure, transact the outside business of the 
Community; nevertheless, when in the convent 
they follow the same spiritual exercises and ob- 
serve the same rule. 

The Cloistered Sisters wear a white habit and 
scapular, with a blue cord; the Outdoor Sisters, 
however, owing to their peculiar work, are dressed 
in a black habit with a blue cord. All carry the 
rosary of Our Lady and the crucifix at their side, 
and wear a large silver heart, on which the figure 
of the Good Shepherd is engraved. 

Besides the ordinary qualifications for a reli- 
gious vocation, postulants of the Order must pos- 
sess an unusual amount of prudence or common 
sense, be characterized by a spirit of generosity 
and be animated by a burning zeal for the salva- 
tion of souls. Postulants will be received from 
the age of sixteen to thirty; fairly robust health 
and freedom from any noticeable physical defects 
are, of course, special requisites. 



THE GOOD SHEPHERD 149 

Poverty will never debar young women of stain- 
less reputation from the Sisterhood. Though no 
dowry is ever stipulated, postulants with means 
are expected to endow the Congregation at their 
final profession with their earthly possessions, just 
as they would take their property with them, were 
they to contract earthly alliances. Thus far the 
needle and laundry work of the Sisters of the 
Good Shepherd has produced sufficient revenue 
for the Sisters to meet their ordinary expenses 
and enabled them to shelter and provide for the 
thousands of women and children whom God has 
entrusted to their maternal care. 

The grounds on which the Monasteries of the 
Sisters of the Good Shepherd are erected, are 
necessarily extensive and afford the Sisters and 
their charges ample space for healthy exercise 
and innocent recreation. 

Three special advantages in the religious life 
are enjoyed by the Sisters. 1. Their work is of 
such a nature that it requires a large number of 
members in every Monastery; this circumstance 
gives the Sisters the fullest advantage of commu- 
nity life. 2. Their work is so varied that the 
special talents of every member may be employed 
to the best advantage. 3. The Sisters have the 
opportunity of exercising their zeal and of per- 
forming heroic works of charity with the least 
possible detriment to their own spiritual progress. 

The Sisters of the Good Shepherd are governed 
by a Mother General who is elected every six 
years. The Congregation at present is divided 
into thirty provinces and possesses Monasteries in 
Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America 
and Australia. As is customary in religious con- 
gregations with a Superior General, the provincial 



150 



SISTERS OF MERCY 



and local Superiors and their Assistants are ap- 
pointed by the Mother General and her Council. 
The Province of Carthage, established in 1857, 
is among the oldest and most efficient in the 
United States. It has two Monasteries in Louis- 
ville, Kentucky, and one in each of the cities of 
Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Toledo, Ohio; 
Newport, Kentucky; Indianapolis, Indiana; De- 
troit and Grand Rapids, Michigan. The mother- 
house and novitiate of this Province is situated 
most picturesquely on a healthful eminence 
at Carthage, a northern suburb of Cincinnati. 
Other Provincial Houses of the Good Shep- 
herd in the United States are situated in New 
York City, Philadelphia, St. Louis and St. Paul. 



SISTERS OF MERCY* 

1843 



To Ireland, the Isle of Faith, is America in- 
debted not only for many of its most learned 
and zealous prelates but also for some of its most 
distinguished religious orders of women. 

The Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy was 
founded in Dublin, Ireland, in the year 1827, by 
Catherine Elizabeth McAuley, the descendant of 
an ancient and distinguished Catholic family. 
After an eventful and serious youth, Catherine re- 
solved to devote her life to the service of God's 
poor and to aid in the alleviation of human mis- 
ery. 

♦Especially prepared from data furnished by the Sisters of Mercy, 
Convent of Mercy, 1075 Madison Avenue, New York City, Shea's "His- 
tory of the Catholic Church in the U. S,"; Catholic Encyclopaedia. 




MOTHER GENEVIEVE 
For many years Superior of Sisters of Mercy, Xavier Park, Chicago, Illinois 



SISTERS OF MERCY 151 

When, in 1822, Miss McAuley came into full 
possession of her inheritance she felt that God 
required her to do something permanent for the 
poor, and she determined to carry out an early 
vision she had of founding an institution in which 
women might, when out of work, find a temporary 
home. In this undertaking she was wisely ad- 
vised, and after deliberation a site on Baggott 
Street in Dublin was selected for the establish- 
ment. 

On the Feast of Our Lady of Mercy — September 
24, 1827 — the new institution was opened. Planned 
as a home for destitute women, for orphans, and 
to serve as a place for schools for the poor, Miss 
McAuley, with two companions, personally under- 
took the management of the home. There was 
no idea then of founding a religious institution; 
on the contrary the foundress's plan was to es- 
tablish a society of secular ladies who would spend 
a few hours of each day in instructing the poor. 
Gradually, however, the interior life of these as- 
sociates and their external occupations and rela- 
tions became too much like the monastic life to 
remain under secular rule. The ladies had al- 
ready assumed a sombre and rather uniform dress 
and playfully called each other "Sister"; more- 
over they occasionally took a meal on the prem- 
ises and even at times remained over night. 

In 1828, Archbishop Murray permitted the staff 
of the Institute to assume a distinctive and uni- 
form dress and to publicly visit the sick. In the 
same year the Archbishop desired Miss McAuley 
to choose some name by which the little commu- 
nity might be known, and she chose that of "Sis- 
ters of Mercy," having the intention of making 
the works of mercy the distinctive features of the 



152 SISTERS OF MERCY 

Institute. She was also desirous that the members 
should combine with the silence and the prayer 
of the Carmelite the active labors of the Sister of 
Charity. 

Soon after the naming of the community, the 
Sisters were bound to the laborious duties of in- 
structing the ignorant, visiting the sick and im- 
prisoned, managing hospitals, orphanages and 
homes for distressed or destitute women; in fact, 
to every work of mercy. They were to make per- 
petual vows, observe Choir and spend six or seven 
hours daily in spiritual exercises. 

On the Octave of the Ascension, 1829, the Arch- 
bishop blessed the chapel of the Institution and 
dedicated it to Our Lady of Mercy. 

This combination of the contemplative and the 
active life necessary for the duties of the Congre- 
gation, called forth so much opposition that it 
seemed as though the Community — now number- 
ing twelve — must disband. However, objections 
were overcome and it was settled that several of 
the Sisters should make their novitiates in some 
approved religious house and after their profes- 
sion return to the Institute to train the others to 
the religious life. 

The Presentation Order seemed the one best 
adapted for the training of the first novices of 
the new Congregation, and Miss McAuley, Miss 
Elizabeth Harley and Miss Anna Maria Doyle be- 
gan their novitiate with that Community at 
George's Hill, Dublin, September 8, 1830. 

A little more than a year later the three postu- 
lants made their vows of religion and Miss McAu- 
ley, as Mother Mary Catherine, was appointed first 
Superior of the now established Sisters of Mercy; 
this office Mother Catherine held for the remain- 
der of her life. 




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SISTERS OF MERCY 153 

The Rules and Constitutions of the Congregation 
were not completed until 1834, nor approved until 
1835, yet they contained in substance only that 
which had been observed from the year 1827. On 
June 6, 1841, the Rules and Constitutions received 
the formal approval of the Holy See. 

Kingston was the first place outside of Dublin 
in which a house of the Congregation was opened; 
other foundations were then made. Following the 
establishment of the Order in England the growth 
of the Congregation was rapid and the number 
of houses increased accordingly. 

In September, 1843, responding to the earnest 
efforts of Rishop O'Connor of Pittsburgh, a colony 
of seven Sisters of Mercy, with Mother Francis 
Warde as Superior, came to the United States and 
on December 22, 1843, St. Mary's Convent, Mt. 
Mercy — the first American foundation of the Sis- 
ters of Mercy — was opened in Pittsburg, Pennsyl- 
vania. 

From this time the mission of the Sisters of 
Mercy was established in the East, parochial 
schools were opened, orphanages and hospitals 
were founded. In the year 1847 the first hospital 
in Western Pennsylvania was opened under their 
management. 

In 1845 Rishop Quarter of Chicago visited Pitts- 
burg and secured the promise of a colony of Sis- 
ters of Mercy for his diocese. However, the Chi- 
cago foundation was not made until several 
months after the establishment of a Community 
in New York by Sisters of Mercy from England. 
Notwithstanding this, the Chicago foundation, es- 
tablished with Sister Mary Agatha O'Rrien as 
Superior, is properly considered the second house 
of the Congregation in the United States. 



154 SISTERS OF MERCY 

In 1846 the New York foundation was erected 
by a band of Sisters from England with Mother 
M. Agnes O'Connor as Superior. Bishop Hughes 
of New York had applied to the Mother-founda- 
tion in Dublin for Sisters for New York. Mother 
M. Agnes O'Connor had gone to England for the 
purpose of opening a new Convent there and then 
returning to Ireland, hearing of Bishop Hughes' 
petition she consented to take charge of the New 
York foundation, and with five Sisters, one novice 
and one postulant, she arrived in New York May 
14, 1846. Since their establishment in New York 
this community of the Sisters of Mercy has opened 
industrial schools, homes for business women, 
hospitals, etc., in New York City, as well as estab- 
lishments in other cities of the State and in the 
States of Missouri and California. 

The Convent of Mercy at 1075 Madison Avenue, 
in New York, is the American Mother-house of 
the Sisters of Mercy, though each house of the 
Order is independent of any other, being entirely 
diocesan institutions under the government of a 
Superior and her assistants. 

In the year 1854, Bishop Allemany of San Fran- 
cisco, California, appealed to Ireland for Sisters 
for his diocese; in response, the third colony of 
Sisters of Mercy came to the United States. 

From these three European colonies the Sisters 
of Mercy have spread throughout the entire 
United States, with a rapidity almost unparalleled 
in the history of Religious Orders of Women. 






SISTERS OF THE PRECIOUS BLOOD 155 



SISTERS OF THE MOST PRECIOUS 
BLOOD * 

1844 

The Community of the Sisters of the Most 
Precious Blood, whose mother-house is located at 
Maria Stein, Mercer County, Ohio, originated in 
Graubunden, Switzerland, in the year 1833. In 
this year the saintly widow mother of the Very 
Rev. Francis Sales Brunner, who transplanted the 
Priest-Society of the Precious Blood to America, 
made a pilgrimage to Rome, visiting many holy 
shrines and churches. She was deeply impressed 
with the veneration and adoration of the Most 
Precious Blood practiced in the Eternal City, es- 
pecially by the Missionary Society of the Precious 
Blood, founded by the Blessed Caspar del Bufalo. 
Filled with an ardent desire to see this devotion 
introduced and propagated in her own native 
land, she conceived the idea of forming a little 
band of virgins with whom to adore the Precious 
Blood in a Community life. Her saintly son, Very 
Rev. Francis Sales Brunner, assisted her in carry- 
ing out her project and prepared for her use the 
old castle Loewenberg, Ct. Graubunden, Switzer- 
land. Here in the spring of 1834 with the sanc- 
tion of the Right Rev. Bishop of Chur, the adora- 
tion of the Most Precious Blood was begun by the 
Ven. Mother Maria Anna Brunner and her pious 
associates. Father Brunner was appointed ad- 
viser and director of the Infant Community, which 

*Especially prepared by the Sisters of the Precious Blood, Maria 
Stem, Mercer County, Ohio. 



156 SISTERS OF THE 

office he faithfully filled until his holy death in 
1859. He wrote for the Sisters a rule of life, tak- 
ing for his model the rules of St. Benedict, which 
received the approbation of the Right Rev. Bish- 
op Chur. In 1836 the earthly career of Mother 
Maria Anna Brunner was terminated by a most 
saintly death. Sister Clara succeeded her in of- 
fice, and under the safe guidance of Father Brun- 
ner the little Community continued its pious con- 
vent life consisting of prayer, manual labor and 
works of charity for the poor and orphans. 

In 1843 the Very Rev. Francis Sales Brunner 
who had meanwhile entered the Missionary So- 
ciety of the Priests of the Precious Blood, was 
appointed by his Superiors in Rome to establish 
a province of the Society in America. In order to 
assist him in his work and to share in the mis- 
sionary labors of the Fathers of the Precious 
Blood, he called to America three of the Sisters 
of Loewenburg. They came in July, 1844, and 
temporarily took up their abode in a small log 
house at St. Alphons, near Norwalk, Huron Coun- 
ty, Ohio. The first permanent foundation of the 
Sisters' Community was made at New Riegel, 
Seneca County, Ohio, and on Christmas night, 
1844, the Sisters, whose number had increased to 
six, began their nightly vigils before the Blessed 
Sacrament. 

In 1846 a site for the erection of a mother-house 
was selected in Marion Township, Mercer County, 
Ohio, near the village of St. John. The convent 
being completed, eight Sisters took possession of 
their new Sanctuary on September 24, 1846. The 
chapel was dedicated to Our Lady, Help of Chris- 
tians, while the convent was called Maria Stein, 
in memory of the convent and shrine of our Lady 




SISTERS OF THE MOST PRECIOUS BLOOD 
Maria Stein, Mercer County, Ohio 



MOST PRECIOUS BLOOD 157 

at Maria Stein, Switzerland, where Father Brun- 
ner spent the first ten years of his religious life. 
The original buildings have long since been re- 
placed by more spacious structures and from time 
to time such parts have been added as necessity 
demanded. 

In 1850 the Castle Loewenberg was sold and all 
the Sisters were transferred to America. In quick 
succession convents of the Perpetual Adoration 
now arose in Mercer, Auglaize, Seneca and Put- 
nam Counties, Ohio, and one in Jay County, Indi- 
ana. The last foundation of this kind was made 
in Rome City, Indiana, in 1901. 

The object in founding these convents was two- 
fold. First: The adoration of the Precious Blood 
in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar by unin- 
terrupted prayer, in order to obtain from God 
vocations for the holy priesthood, especially for 
the missionary career, that thus the Precious 
Blood of our Redeemer might be rendered fruitful 
to souls. Second, the education of youth, includ- 
ing the care of orphans and poor, homeless or des- 
titute girls. 

From the very beginning a number of Sisters 
were employed in teaching, partly in the convent 
schools and partly in the schools of the parishes 
founded by the Missionary Fathers of the Precious 
Blood. As the demand for Parochial Schools in- 
creased, the Community established Mission 
places in the dioceses of Cleveland, Nashville, 
Fort Wayne, Kansas City, St. Joseph, Tucson, be- 
sides a number in the Archiodese of Cincinnati, 
Of such places the Community has at present thir- 
ty-five. Two orphanges are in charge of the Sis- 
ters, one at Dayton, Ohio, the other at Minster, 
Ohio. 



158 SISTERS OF THE 

An institution of recent date is the Kneipp Sani- 
tarium at Rome City, Indiana. A convent of the 
Perpetual Adoration is connected with it. The 
culinary department of the Fathers of the Pre- 
cious Blood, in their College at Collegeville, Indi- 
ana, and their Seminary at Carthagena is also in 
charge of the Sisters. 

The religious government of the Community is 
vested in a Mother Superior General and her 
council under the direction of the Most Rev. Arch- 
bishop of Cincinnati. All convents and Mission 
houses are dependent upon the mother-house. A 
spiritual director is appointed for the Community 
by the Most Rev. Archbishop of Cincinnati. 

As stated above, Father Brunner was the first 
spiritual director and founder of the congrega- 
tion in America. At the time of his saintly death 
in 1859 he left the Community in a flourishing 
condition with Mother Kunigunda Wehrle as Su- 
perior General. The Community aimed not at 
public recognition and no such deeds as win the 
admiration of the world are recorded, but it took 
for its model the hidden life of Jesus, Mary and 
Joseph at Nazareth. Prayer, silence, penance, 
hard work, were the means by which they sought 
to labor for their own sanctification as well as 
for the welfare of mankind by calling down God's 
blessing upon those engaged in active missionary 
work. Unceasing were the pleadings sent to God 
for good priests, the conversion of sinners and 
wants of Holy Church. 

In 1887 Mother Ludovica Scharf was elected 
Mother Superior General and governed the Com- 
munity for a period of twelve years; Mother Em- 
ma Nunlist is now serving her second term, hav- 
ing succeeded Mother Josephine Boetsch in Au- 
gust, 1911. 







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MOST PRECIOUS BLOOD 159 

Father Brunner had for his successor the Very 
Rev. Andrew Kunkler, who guided the Com- 
munity for a period of sixteen years. His memory 
is cherished by all who had the happiness of com- 
ing in contact with him. The last spiritual direc- 
tor of the Community the Very Rev. H. Drees was 
a man of no less eminent piety than his predeces- 
sors. He drew the attention of the Community 
especially to the active side of missionary work 
by urging the establishment of a larger num- 
ber of schools. Under his direction most of 
the mission places were founded. His most edi- 
fying death occurred October 10, 1909. 

The Community numbers at present about six 
hundred Professed Sisters, forty-five Novices and 
twenty-three Postulants. 

It may be remarked here that attached to the 
Community chapel is a pilgrimage chapel where a 
priceless treasure of well-authenticated relics is 
preserved and exposed for public veneration. The 
words above the portal are significant: "Enter, O 
devout pilgrim, for this is the holiest place in the 
New World." In this small, devotion-inspiring 
sanctuary we may venerate relics of numerous 
objects closely connected with the life and pas- 
sion of our Redeemer, the life of His Blessed 
Mother, St. Joseph, and many other eminent 
Saints. Here we find particles from the Holy Man- 
ger, the table used at the Last Supper, the Pillar 
of Scourging, the purple Mantle, the place where 
our Lord was condemned to death, the Cords and 
the Sponge of the Passion; a fac-simile of a nail 
used at the crucifixion with particles of a true 
nail; a Thorn showing traces of the Sacred Blood 
of our Saviour; a particle of the Holy Cross. Like- 
wise are found here particles from the veil and 



160 



SISTERS, SERVANTS OF THE 



girdle of the Blessed Virgin, the veil of St. Ver- 
onica, the tunic of St. Joseph; from the head of 
St. John the Baptist; from the bones of St. 
Joachim, St. Ann, St. Zachary, St. Elizabeth, the 
Magi, the Holy Innocents and of numerous other 
Saints, including relics of the Apostles, Evangel- 
ists and Doctors of the Church. Many signal 
favors have been granted here to those who 
sought help in some pressing need. 



SISTERS, SERVANTS OF THE IM- 
MACULATE HEART OF MARY* 

1845 



The history of the Congregation of the Sisters, 
Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, dates 
back to the year 1845. 

The Redemptorist Fathers having established a 
Mission House of their Order at Monroe, Michi- 
gan in 1844, Reverend Louis Gilet, the Superior, 
realized that to accomplish any lasting good 
among his people, he must begin with the young. 
He must have a school in which the child would 
be taught that to know, love and serve God was 
of infinitely greater importance than all other 
knowledge gained in the schools. But how to ac- 
complish his purpose, where to get the means, 
where to procure the teachers? These were the 
perplexing questions that presented themselves to 
his mind; but faith and zeal have solutions for 
many a problem that otherwise would remain un- 
solved. For finances he would trust to the Provi- 
dence of God, for religious teachers, if he could 

*Especially prepared by the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate 
Heart of Mary, St. Mary's Convent, Monroe, Michigan. 



IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY 161 

get none from the religious Communities then in 
this country or the older Orders in Europe, he 
would found an institute of religious women, who, 
consecrating themselves to God by the simple 
vows and living in seclusion from the world, 
should devote their lives to the education of 
youth. 

Right Reverend Rishop Lefevre, Rishop of De- 
troit, warmly approved this project and gave the 
zealous Redemptorist every encouragement and 
his faithful co-operation in carrying out a work 
which he recognized as that of Divine Providence. 

Father Gilet had hoped to get the Ursulines 
from Roulogne, France, when his friend and 
neighbor Father Rappe, later Rishop of Cleve- 
land, introduced them into Toledo. Failing in this, 
he began to put his long cherished design into 
execution. 

He prepared a rule and constitutions founded 
on those of St. Alphonsus and obtained for them 
the approval of Rishop Lefevre. Ry a special de- 
cree given at Rome, February 1, 1889, these rules 
and constitutions were approved by the Holy See. 
The rule requires each member, (1) To endeavor 
constantly to advance her own sanctification by 
imitating the virtues of Jesus Christ, her model 
and Spouse; (2) To devote her life, in conformity 
with the rules and constitutions, to the education 
of youth and the care of orphans and destitute 
children. 

The work had for its foundation the solid stone 
of poverty, its spirit is identical with that of the 
Redemptorists, the imitation of the Divine Re- 
deemer of mankind, charity, humility and sim- 
plicity. To emphasize the bond of unity so essen- 
tial to the life of a religious family, the zealous 
n 



162 SISTERS, SERVANTS OF THE 

founder made it imperative that the members 
"shall have but one heart and one soul, loving 
one another with an affection founded more on 
spiritual than on natural motives." 

The rule prepared, he gave his attention to the 
habit of his future religious. Having obtained a 
pattern from Toledo, he added a scapular, which 
he deemed a great improvement. The habit is in 
the form of a gown, confined to the waist by a 
girdle over which is worn the scapular. The gimp 
and bonnet are white, the latter close fitting to 
the face, over which is worn a long black veil; 
a crucifix on the chest, a rosary at the girdle, and 
a gold ring, the sign of the indissoluble alliance 
with the heavenly Spouse, completes their reli- 
gious garb. The color of the habit and scapular 
at first was black, but in 1852 it was changed to 
blue, in honor of the Immaculate Conception. 

Of the young ladies who willingly responded to 
his call, Father Gilet found four who answered 
the requirements. Teresa Maxis and Ann Schaaf 
whom the Redemptorists in Baltimore asked him 
to receive. Teresa Renaud, from Grosse Pointe, 
Detroit, and Mme. Godfroy Smith, the sister of 
the Mayor of Monroe. 

Teresa Maxis and Ann Schaaf received the 
habit privately in the sacristy of St. Mary's 
Church, Sunday, November 30, 1845, each retain- 
ing her baptismal name. Father Gilet placed the 
holy rule in Sister Teresa's hand— as she was the 
elder of the two — naming her the Superior. He 
deferred the reception of Teresa Renaud one 
week, when on the Feast of the Immaculate Con- 
ception it was publicly held in church, she re- 
ceived the name of Sister M. Celestine. As Mme. 
Godfroy Smith was prevented from entering at 




g o 

£ g 

02 „, 



IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY 163 

that time, her reception was held the following 
May; the Very Reverend P. Kendekens, V. G., pre- 
sided, giving her the name of Sister M. Alphon- 
sine. In 1849, she was canonically appointed Su- 
perior of the Community by Bishop Lefevre. 

From the beginning, Father Gilet took complete 
charge of the spiritual affairs of the Sisterhood, 
training the members to all usages and practices 
essential to religious life and the true spirit of St. 
Alphonsus, personally conducting all their spirit- 
ual exercises, and also training them to the fulfill- 
ment of all their duties as religious teachers. In 
his absence, his assistant, Reverend Father Poil- 
vache, so widely known as the "Saintly Father 
Francis" and whose process of beatification is 
now being advanced in Rome, conducted the spir- 
itual exercises for the Sisters. 

Father Gilet felt that it was by the inspiration 
of the Holy Ghost that he had established a per- 
manent organization of religious women whose 
ultimate aims were their own sanctification and 
the education of youth. It was solely the work of 
God and with implicit confidence in the aid of Di- 
vine Providence, he labored with prudence and 
diligence, zeal and energy, to carry on that work 
to completion. He placed the members under the 
patronage of the Immaculate Conception, naming 
them "Sisters of Providence," a title which they 
bore until the eighth of December, 1847, when, at 
the request of Reverend E. Smulders, C. SS. R. — 
who had replaced Father Gilet as Superior — and 
with the approbation of the Right Reverend 
Bishop, the title was changed to that which the 
Sisterhood bears today, namely, "Sisters, Servants 
of the Immaculate Heart of Mary." The first 
school was opened January 15, 1846. 



164 SISTERS, SERVANTS OF THE 

For ten years, the seed planted by the saintly 
founder, under the faithful care of the Redemp- 
torist Fathers, slowly struggled into life and 
beauty, but in 1855 the Redemptorists were re- 
called to Baltimore and the little Community ex- 
perienced its first severe trial, and for nearly 
three years it was left without a guide. Priests 
came and went often at intervals of several 
weeks, but they had no permanent pastor at St. 
Mary's, and the little band of devoted women 
proved themselves strong and valiant, true reli- 
gious in bearing sufferings and privations without 
murmuring or complaint, keeping up the school 
in St. Mary's parish and also in Vienna, a nearby 
mission. 

In November, 1857, Reverend Edward Joos, 
later Right Reverend Monsignor Joos, was ap- 
pointed by Bishop Lefevre, Pastor of St. Mary's 
Church and Superior and Director of the Congre- 
gation of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate 
Heart of Mary, who at that time numbered four- 
teen professed Sisters and four in the Novitiate. 

After a pastorate of thirteen years, rich in sacri- 
fices and fruitful in spiritual conquests, Father 
Joos withdrew from all pastoral duties to devote 
himself wholly to the cause of Catholic education, 
for with that wisdom which characterized his 
whole life, he recognized this as the work God 
had destined him to do, and for forty-four years 
he devoted all his energies, his hopes, his prayers 
and his sacrifices to the furtherance of this Divine 
Cause. His authoritative voice proved the strength 
of the growing Community and his spiritual and 
pedagogical teachings the success of its incessant 
labors. In his quiet and effective way, in his de- 
votedness and foresight, he gave its work a right 



IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY 165 

direction, which thoroughly identified it with 
Catholic life and progress and won for it the es- 
teem of the priests and the people, who regard it 
as an ideal teaching organization. 

The building period began with the advent of 
Father Joos; one brick building after another 
arose, each meeting the demands of the day, and 
each in proportion to the means at hand to cover 
its expense. 

The saintly Bishop Newman of Philadelphia — 
who was himself a Redemptorist — introduced the 
Sisters into his diocese in 1858. They were estab- 
lished at St. Joseph's, Susquehanna and at Read- 
ing, and from these foundations have come the 
large houses of the Order at Westchester and at 
Scranton. In later years, higher ecclesiastical 
authorities deemed it best that these houses 
should become independent, each having its own 
Mother-house, Novitiate and Mission Schools. The 
Mother-house for the archdiocese of Philadelphia 
being at Villa Maria, Westchester, Pennsylvania, 
and for the diocese of Scranton the Mother-house 
is at Scranton, Pennsylvania. 

Today (1912) the Congregation of the Sisters, 
Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, is 
established in eleven dioceses in the United States ; 
the Congregation numbers nearly thirteen hun- 
dred members, and has an enrollment of over for- 
ty thousand pupils in the parochial schools. The 
Congregation has always favored higher educa- 
tion, its principal Academies are affiliated with 
the leading Universities of the country. 

To each of its three large Novitiates, a Normal 
school is attached, St. Mary's, Monroe, is char- 
tered as a College. 

Nearly all the schools conducted by the Sisters, 



166 



SCHOOL SISTERS 



Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, in De- 
troit and Cleveland dioceses carry High School 
courses. 



SCHOOL SISTERS OF NOTRE 
DAME* 

1847 



The Congregation of the School Sisters of Notre 
Dame is, as the name indicates, a teaching order 
devoted to the Christian education of youth from 
the kindergarten up to the college. The Congre- 
gation is a transformation of the French "Con- 
gregation de Notre Dame," founded in France, 
1597, by St. Peter Fourier. This transformation 
was made necessary in order to comply with the 
demands and progressiveness of the times. 

St. Peter Fourier, (1565-1640) an Augustinian 
canon, remarkable for his learning, zeal for the 
salvation of souls, and such kindness of heart that 
he was surnamed "le bon pere de Mattaincourt" 
(the good father of Mattaincourt) was called by 
God to found a congregation of women who 
would attend to the Christian education of female 
youth, not only within the walls of their cloister, 
but also outside these walls. 

Cause for this foundation was the neglected 
condition of the education of the young women in 
his own parish at Mattaincourt, in Lorraine. En- 
lightened — as the Saints of God are — he soon 
recognized in a few pious virgins the suitable sub- 
jects for the accomplishment of this important 
project. Above all the others, Miss Alice LeClerc 



*Especially prepared by "A School Sister of Notre Dame, 
T ent of Notre Dame, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 



Con- 



OF NOTRE DAME 167 

was in every respect a providential personality, 
whose brilliant gifts of mind and heart the holy 
founder could turn to advantage. She was joined 
by four highly gifted and courageous young 
women ready to devote themselves to the new 
work. 

Peter Fourier had ordered the five pioneers of 
the Congregation to present themselves during the 
midnight Mass of Christmas, 1597. They appeared 
robed in plain black garb and black veil, as a sign 
of their renunciation of the world. However sim- 
ple this very first act of the foundation of the 
Congregation was, it was, nevertheless, indescrib- 
ably solemn and impressive. The saint gave Holy 
Communion to the five virgins now consecrating 
themselves to God, before giving it to any of the 
faithful. At the crib of the Divine Infant, the 
order that was destined to lead uncounted thou- 
sands of children to the knowledge and love of 
the Divine Friend of children, had its birth. 

Under the care of one of the greatest saints 
and of a superioress, who soon may receive the 
honors of the altar, the mustard seed grew to be a 
strong tree that spread its branches over France, 
and toward the close of the Seventeenth century 
also over Germany. During the terrible French 
Revolution, however, all its ninety convents in 
France were suppressed, and soon after those in 
Germany fell a prey to the so-called seculariza- 
tion.* 

The convent school of the Congregation of 
Notre Dame in Ratisbon, Germany, was among 

*Secularization is a euphonious term for the sacrilegious robbing 
of churches and convents by temporal princes and magistrates, who 
thus wished to indemnify themselves for the expenses and losses 
caused to them by the long wars at the beginning of the Nineteenth 
century. 



168 



SCHOOL SISTERS 



those secularized and closed. But it was precisely 
this house that Divine Providence had destined 
to prepare the resuscitation of the apparently ex- 
tinct congregation. Ratisbon's saintly bishop, 
George Michael Wittmann, and his pious friend, 
the priest, Francis Sebastian Job, found in a pupil 
of the suppressed convent school, Caroline Ger- 
hardinger, the link between the French Congrega- 
tion de Notre Dame and the new German Congre- 
gation, which was to bear the name "Poor School 
Sisters of Our Lady." 

Both holy men agreed therein, that the rules 
and constitutions of St. Peter Fourier should be 
the fundamental rule for the new congregation, 
but with such modifications as to allow the Sisters 
to teach in the schools of smaller towns and rural 
parishes, in school-houses belonging to the par- 
ishes and not to their convents. Thus the Sisters 
were enabled to meet the school-needs in a 
greater measure than they could do in the old 
congregation, a truly providential thought, as the 
sequel has proved. In consequence thereof, the 
congregation grew rapidly and in 1847 was able 
to send Sisters to America. 

Divine Providence had put the work of St. Peter 
Fourier and Mother LeClerc into extraordinarily 
able hands. Bishop Wittmann was eminent for 
piety, learning, zeal for souls and remarkable 
ability in the administration of all the important 
offices which had been entrusted to him in quick 
succession. No one excelled him in works of 
beneficence in the evil times of war and famine, 
which had befallen Ratisbon. His greatest love, 
however, was bestowed upon the children. Beau- 
tifully it is said of him : "To laugh was no habit of 
this serious man, but when a child met him, a 
sweet celestial smile diffusing itself over his coun- 



OF NOTRE DAME 169 

tenance, betrayed the serene delight of his heart." 
Despite his many official duties he daily visited 
the school at Stadtamhof, the first one opened 
and the one given in charge of the youthful Caro- 
line Gerhardinger. 

Bishop Wittmann was born in Pleystein, Bavaria, 
January 23, 1760, and died in Ratisbon March 8, 
1833. His grave in the magnificent Cathedral of 
Ratisbon is to this day an object of universal ven- 
eration. 

The native town of Father F. Sebastian Job, 
Chaplain at the imperial court of Austria, and 
Confessor to the Empress Caroline, was Neun- 
burg vorm Wald, Bavaria. Here Father Job es- 
tablished a parish school, appropriating his own 
considerable fortune for this good work. Thus 
it came, that the first convent and mother-house 
of the new Congregation was founded in Neun- 
burg vorm Wald and dedicated October 24, 1833. 
Special honorary mention here is also due Father 
Matthias Siegert, the first Spiritual Director of 
the Congregation. During forty-six years he was 
the faithful counselor of the venerable Mother 
Theresa, nee Caroline Gerhardinger. 

This providential woman was born June 20, 
1797, at Stadtamhof, a suburb of Ratisbon. Under 
the guidance of the holy Bishop Wittmann she 
became the first Superior General of the School 
Sisters of Notre Dame. After the model of her 
saintly teacher and director, she developed into a 
religious and superioress who will be forever the 
School Sisters' model of piety, humility and ener- 
gy. Though of an exceedingly calm and gentle 
exterior, she was a "valiant woman" in the most 
beautiful sense of the word. She died at the 
Mother-house in Munich, May 9, 1879. The Rt. 



170 SCHOOL SISTERS 

Rev. Msgr. F. Friess has perpetuated her memory 
in a beautiful history of her life. 

With the rapid growth and the increasing ex- 
tension of the Congregation, the mother-institute 
at Neunburg soon proved to be too small. In 
1841, at the request of King Louis I. of Bavaria, 
the Mother-house was established at Munich; at 
first in "The Au," (the Meadow). This again prov- 
ing too small, the former convent of the Poor 
Clares, dating back to 1284, was purchased and 
restored. His Grace, the Archbishop of Munich, 
Lothaire Anselm, who contributed the sum of 12,- 
000 gulden toward the defraying of the cost of the 
cloister and its improvements, blessed the Mother- 
house and its oratories October 16, 1843, precisely 
559 years after the first dedication of the convent. 

January 23, 1854, after twenty years of labor 
attended with signal blessings, the institute of the 
"Poor School Sisters of Notre Dame" obtained 
the sanction of His Holiness, Pius IX. Thus, on the 
feast of the Espousals of the Blessed Virgin, the 
Congregation was espoused to the Church, and 
that in the same year in which the Immaculate 
Conception was declared a dogma of faith. 

In 1832, the Redemptorist Fathers had begun 
their missionary work in the young Church of 
America, particularly among the German Catho- 
lics of the United States. The zealous mission- 
aries saw the necessity of parochial schools, and 
they turned their attention to the young Congre- 
gation of the School Sisters of Notre Dame for 
suitable teachers. A few wealthy gentlemen had 
purchased land and formed a German Catholic 
Colony in Elk County, Pennsylvania, called St. 
Mary's. 

At the instance of the Redemptorist Fathers, a 



OF NOTRE DAME 171 

gentleman was sent to Bavaria by the Rt. Rev. 
Michael O'Connor, first Bishop of Pittsburg to ob- 
tain School Sisters for the colony. He addressed 
himself to the Most Rev. Archbishop of Munich, 
Count Reisach, who advised Mother Theresa to 
accept the mission, to which she consented. The 
missionaries were to be only such as volunteered 
to remain for life. Among those who applied, 
Mother Theresa selected Sisters Mary Barbara 
Weinzierl, M. Magdalen Steiner, M. Seraphina von 
Pronath, M. Caroline Friess. Mother Theresa her- 
self desired to conduct them to their new field of 
labor, taking with her a traveling companion, Sis- 
ter M. Emmanuela Breitenbach, who, after the 
lapse of a year, was to accompany her on her re- 
turn voyage to Europe. On June 18, 1847, the 
brave volunteers left Munich for Bremen to board 
the American steamer Washington, and after a 
prosperous voyage landed in New York on the 
feast of St. Ignatius, July 31, 1847. 

The first School Sisters of Notre Dame were 
now in America. The Bavarian Consul received 
them with every mark of respect and paid them 
the kindest attention. After a rest of a few days 
the Sisters set out for their destination, St. Mary's, 
Elk County, Pa. To the great grief of the Sisters, 
one of their number, Sister Emmanuela, suc- 
cumbed to the heat, and died at Harrisburg, Pa. 

On the feast of the Assumption, August 15, 1847, 
after a long and tedious journey through the 
dense forests of Pennsylvania, the four pioneer 
School Sisters, with their Mother General, reached 
St. Mary's, where they were heartily welcomed by 
the Redemptorist Fathers and the good Colonists. 
After paying a visit to the little log church, where 
the Benediction with the Most Blessed Sacrament 



172 SCHOOL SISTERS 

was given, and where they invoked the protection 
of the Blessed Queen of Heaven, they were con- 
ducted to their first home in the New World, a 
veritable stable of Bethlehem, poverty stamped 
on every one of the few articles of furniture that 
were there. To the keen eye of Mother Theresa, 
it was clear, at first sight, that St. Mary's was not 
the place for a permanent location of her Com- 
munity, least of all, for a Mother-house. There- 
fore, in a quiet, but determined way, she began at 
once to look for a more suitable site. With the 
assistance of Very Rev. Father Neuman, at the 
time Provincial of the Redemptorists, later Bishop 
of Philadelphia, she selected Baltimore, secured 
the Redemptorists' Novitiate house — near St. 
James' Church, Aisquith Street — and withdrew 
two Sisters from St. Mary's, leaving Sisters Sera- 
phina and Mary Barbara to teach the girls' school 
in the Colony. 

During the first days of October, Mother The- 
resa and the two Sisters took possession of their 
convent and on October 8, 1847, St. James' School, 
with an enrollment of 75 girls, was given in 
charge of Sister Magdalen as teacher. On October 
21, St. Michael's School was opened with Mother 
Theresa as teacher, and on November 3, St. Al- 
phonsus' School was entrusted to the Sisters and 
Sister Caroline was then placed in charge as 
teacher. 

At the very outset the Community was blessed 
with the entrance of American postulants. On 
March 25, 1848, a colony of recruits — eleven Sis- 
ters — arrived from Munich; these at once ren- 
dered their services in the schools and became 
devoted co-laborers in the founding of the Con- 
gregation in America. 





MOTHER CAROLINE OF THE SCHOOL SISTERS OF NOTRE DAME 

(First Commissary-General in America) 
Notre Dame Convent, Milwaukee, Wis. 



OF NOTRE DAME 173 

When the success of the Sisters' work in Balti- 
more became known invitations from various 
parts of the country were received. Mother The- 
resa, therefore, resolved to make a personal in- 
spection of the places already ottered them and 
of other likely locations. On this important tour 
she took with her Sister Caroline, whose abilities 
daily became more evident. They set out for Pitts- 
burg, where arrangements were made with 
Bishop O'Connor for the opening of a school. 
Detroit, Milwaukee, Buffalo, Rochester and Phil- 
adelphia were then visited. Their visit to Milwau- 
kee was made upon the urgent invitation of its 
first bishop, Rt. Rev. J. M. Henni. Before their 
arrival, however, the bishop had left for Europe, 
in consequence of which no definite arrangements 
for the establishment of a house in the young city 
could then be made. 

Returning to Baltimore, Mother Theresa made 
her plans for her home journey to Europe. She 
appointed the senior sister, Mother M. Seraphina, 
as Superioress of the American Community, but 
the management of the already existing schools 
and the foundation of future ones she placed in 
the hands of Sister Caroline. In July, 1848, Mother 
Theresa left for Europe, and never again visited 
America. 

Bishop Henni was particularly anxious to se- 
cure the School Sisters of Notre Dame for his new 
diocese, erected in 1844. The ambition of the ener- 
getic bishop was to have them establish their 
American Mother-house in his episcopal city. On 
his way to Rome he arrived at Munich before 
Mother Theresa returned from America. At once 
he began to plead his cause so well with Arch- 
bishop Reisach — later on Cardinal and Cardinal- 



174 SCHOOL SISTERS 

Protector of the Congregation-— with King Louis 
I., their generous patron, and with Father Siegert, 
the Spiritual Director of the Community, that 
upon the return of Mother General the matter 
was quickly decided in Bishop Henni's favor. Ac- 
cordingly, instructions were sent to Baltimore di- 
recting Sister Caroline to go to Milwaukee. How- 
ever, before carrying out these instructions, she 
was sent to Europe by Mother M. Seraphina, the 
American Superior General of the Congregation. 
The occasion of this visit w T as the settlement of a 
very important question concerning the "enclos- 
ure" of the Order. 

The impression Sister Caroline made on her 
superiors was so favorable that she was, by a de- 
cree of October 10, 1850, named "Vicar-General" 
of the Congregation and directed, after her return 
to Baltimore, to go at once to Milwaukee and 
there establish — in that episcopal city — the Amer- 
ican Mother-house of the School Sisters of Notre 
Dame. On December 15, 1850, Mother Caroline 
arrived in Milwaukee, she was accompanied by 
Sisters M. Emmanuela and M. Aloysia, sisters to 
each other; Sister M. Zita and one candidate. 
With money donated by King Louis, Bishop 
Henni had bought — for the Sisters — a house at 
the southwest corner of Knapp and Milwaukee 
Streets. Though small, it had four chimneys, and, 
therefore, was generally known as "the house 
with the four chimneys." It had belonged to a 
Presbyterian minister and it stands today, though 
it is entirely absorbed in the huge pile of build- 
ings called "Notre Dame Convent." 

Mother Caroline, with that wonderful pluck and 
energy which afterwards made her so famous 
and successful, began at once to furnish the little 



OF NOTRE DAME 175 

convent and on Christmas Eve the house was 
ready for the Bishop's blessing. On Christmas 
Day the Bishop celebrated Mass in the little chapel 
which had been arranged in one of the few rooms 
in the house. The Congregation of the School Sis- 
ters of Notre Dame was now fairly started on its 
career of faithful and efficient work in the great 
cause of Christian education. From the smallest 
of beginnings, both East and West, it has grown 
into one of the foremost teaching Orders in the 
United States. 

In January, 1851, Mother Caroline opened the 
first parish school of the Order in the West, at St. 
Mary's Church, of which Rev. Dr. Saltzmann was 
the rector. Soon after this, in accordance to the 
wish of the Bishop, for a select day school, an ad- 
dition was built to the convent on Milwaukee 
Street. Following this, the boarding school — "St. 
Mary's Institute" — was opened. 

As soon as possible, Mother Caroline began to 
establish schools in Wisconsin and Michigan, in 
Philadelphia, Pittsburg, Buffalo and New York, in 
New Orleans, St. Louis and other places. In the 
course of time, boarding schools were also estab- 
lished in Milwaukee, Baltimore, Notre Dame of 
Maryland, Fort Lee, Quincy, Chicago, Prairie du 
Chien, etc. Mother Caroline considered boarding 
schools necessary, but she emphasized, at every 
opportunity, that the parochial school and the or- 
phanage were the special vocation of the Congre- 
gation; that they would be untrue to their provi- 
dential calling should they deviate from this 
principle. 

At the time of Mother Caroline's death, in 1892, 
there were over 200 houses or convents in charge 
of the Community, with 2,000 Sisters in 17 States 
and 20 dioceses, teaching about 70,000 children. 



176 



SCHOOL SISTERS 



July 31, 1876, the Congregation in America — on 
account of its rapid growth and great extension — 
was divided into two provinces, the Western Prov- 
ince retaining its Mother-house at Milwaukee, 
and the Eastern Province with its Mother-house 
at Baltimore. March 19, 1895, the Western Prov- 
ince was divided and the Southern Province 
formed, with its Mother-house in one of the 
suburbs of St. Louis, on the banks of the Missis- 
sippi; hence its name, "Sancta Maria in Ripa." 
August 19, 1910, His Eminence, Angelo di Pietro, 
the Cardinal-Protector of the Congregation, ap- 
proved of the formation of a new province — the 
Northwestern. Mankato, Minnesota, was selected 
for the location of this Provincial Mother-house. 
Providence seems to have especially directed the 
choice of this location; quite unexpectedly, a dis- 
tinguished Protestant gentleman offered the Com- 
munity 15 acres of fine park-land for the erection 
of an academy for young ladies. Thereupon the 
Catholic citizens of Mankato purchased 44 acres 
adjoining the park-land and donated them to the 
Sisters for a Mother-house. On the feast of Our 
Lady of Good Counsel — April 25, 1910 — these 
generous gifts were accepted by Mother Marianne, 
Commissary-General, and arrangements were 
made for the new buildings. In the fall of 1912, 
the Northwestern Provincial Mother-house was 
blessed and dedicated to Our Lady of Good Coun- 
sel; at this same time the academy was also 
opened. 

During forty years it was Mother Caroline's 
cherished wish to have a Chapel of Perpetual 
Adoration of the Most Holy Sacrament of the Al- 
tar. The corner stone for this Chapel was laid in 
1887, on the feast of St. Ignatius Loyola, and the 




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OF NOTRE DAME 177 

Chapel was blessed on the same feast, in 1892. 
Herewith the Perpetual Adoration began and is 
continued ever since, day and night, with the 
greatest blessings to the Congregation. 

The Congregation of the School Sisters of Notre 
Dame is under the government of the Mother- 
General at Munich, who with her four assistants 
forms the Generalate. The government of the 
American Congregation is in the hands of the 
Commissary-General with her four assistants. 
This Commissariate is elected for a term of six 
years. All professed Sisters of the teaching grade 
have a vote in this election. The whole Congrega- 
tion is divided into districts. The voting Sisters 
in each district choose one Chapter-sister. These 
Chapter-sisters together with the Provincials elect 
the Commissary-General and her assistants. The 
election is by secret ballot, and its results must be 
confirmed by the Mother-General and the Car- 
dinal Protector of the Congregation. 

At the head of each Province there is a Mother 
Provincial, with two assistants. They are elected 
by the respective provinces for a term of three 
years. 

For the election of the Mother-General, and for 
the General Chapter — which meets every six 
years — a deputation of the Sisters in America is 
sent to Munich, Bavaria. This deputation consists 
of the Commissary-General and the Mothers Pro- 
vincial, ex officio, and one companion of each 
Mother-Provincial elected by the respective 
Province. 

In America a General-Congregation convenes 
every six years in the principal Mother-house, at 
Milwaukee. Besides the Election occurring in 
these General Chapters and General Congrega- 



178 SISTERS OF NOTRE DAME 

tions, these meetings are of the greatest import- 
ance for the Congregation, in as much as in them 
principally are discussed the modifications which, 
from time to time, the Constitutions may require, 
as also the ways and means by which the schools 
work of the Sisterhood may be kept apace with 
the demands of the times without injury to the re- 
ligious spirit of the Congregation. 

To train new members for the religious life and 
also for the school-work, the School Sisters of 
Notre Dame have a Candidature and a Novitiate. 
Previous to the Candidature proper, they have a 
Preparatory Class, the "Aspirants." Young ladies 
wishing to join the Order are received into the 
Candidature from the age of sixteen to twenty- 
seven. After two years of probation and study, 
the Candidate is promoted to the Novitiate, in 
which she is still more particularly trained for the 
religious life and for the duties of the class-room. 
A novice — having given satisfactory evidence of 
vocation — is after two years admitted to the tem- 
poral vows of seven years and becomes a "Sceur 
Religieuse." After seven years the Soeur Reli- 
gieuse is admitted to perpetual vows and enters 
into the rank of Professed Sisters. 

The Sisters make an annual spiritual retreat. 
The teaching Sisters meet at specified periods and 
at appointed houses of the Order for "Summer 
Schools" and "Teachers' Institutes." 



SISTERS OF ST. JOSEPH 179 



SISTERS OF ST. JOSEPH, CHEST- 
NUT HILL, PHILADELPHIA* 

1847 

Right Rev. Francis Patrick Kenrick, Bishop of 
Philadelphia, visiting his brother, the Bishop of 
St. Louis, heard from him of the success which 
was attending the labors of the Sisters of St. Jo- 
seph in the Orphan Asylum of that city. Going 
to Carondelet, he begged Mother Gelestine, the Su- 
perior, to send some Sisters to take charge of the 
Boys' Asylum in Philadelphia. It seemed impos- 
sible at first to comply with the request of the 
Bishop. It was finally agreed that four Sisters 
should be given for the work; they were Mother 
St. John Fournier, Sister Mary Magdalen Weber, 
Sister Mary Joseph Clark, Sister Mary Elizabeth 
Kinkeade, the two latter being but lately pro- 
fessed. The Superior, Mother St. John Fournier, 
had been one of the Sisters named as the foun- 
dresses of the American Mission in 1836; but be- 
ing detained at St. Etienne to complete a course 
of Deaf -Mute instruction, she did not reach these 
shores until 1837, coming then as companion with 
the Saintly Mother Gelestine, the glory of the Con- 
gregation in the United States. 

On May 6, 1847, into Mother St. John's care was 
given St. John's Orphan Asylum, then on Chest- 
nut Street, near 13th, and attached to St. John's 
Church, the pro-Cathedral. The number of boys 
was forty, under the care of a couple of secular 
ladies, one of whom, Miss Mary Meyer, applied 

*From material kindly furnished by the Sisters of St. Joseph, 
Mt. St. Joseph, Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, Pa* 



180 SISTERS OF ST. JOSEPH 

for admission into the Community, and thus be- 
came the first postulant accepted in Philadelphia. 

Coming as they did into the diocese at a time 
when the "Native American" riots had left an 
aftermath of petty insults and persecution which 
increased many fold the difficulties to be encoun- 
tered, it might be interesting to enter into details 
of the Sisters' trials; but "present right is not 
much helped by retailing past wrong." The clouds 
of bigotry soon began to show their silver lining, 
and the Asylum so prospered that it became 
necessary to erect more spacious buildings, in a 
locality better adapted to the requirements of 
such a work. In May, 1852, the Sisters and their 
charges, about one hundred in number, took pos- 
session of what is still the principal building of St. 
John's Orphan Asylum, West Philadelphia, al- 
though it has served but as a nucleus around 
which now cluster the numerous buildings needed 
for the proper care and education of more than 
six hundred boys. 

But, dear as is to the Sisters of St. Joseph the 
care of the orphans, — it having been the first 
work entrusted to them at their foundation, — it 
was not intended by God to be their chief voca- 
tion in the Diocese of Philadelphia. The problem 
of providing parish schools for the preservation 
of the children to God and the Church, was one 
that the Bishops of this See set themselves reso- 
lutely to solve; and the Daughters of the "Most 
Excellent Educator of Our Lord Jesus Christ" 
were called to take an important share in the 
work. 

The Orphan Asylum, while it afforded a wide 
field for the exercise of postulants' zeal, charity 
and mortification, was in no wise suited for their 



IN PHILADELPHIA. 181 

training in the first principles of religious life; 
still less for the preparation necessary for reli- 
gious teachers. Mother St. John Fournier was not 
slow to realize the want, but as she lacked the 
wherewithal to purchase, the problem caused her 
great anxiety. 

On April 25, 1858, "Monticello" at Chestnut Hill, 
long the residence of the Middleton family, passed 
into the hands of the Sisters of St. Joseph, becom- 
ing "Mount St. Joseph," the mother-house of the 
community, which then had establishments only 
in the diocese of Philadelphia. 

On October 4, 1858, the first pupils entered and 
the educational history of Mt. St. Joseph had be- 
gun. Extensions, improvements, acquisition of 
surrounding property, marked the years at St. Jo- 
seph; the original six acres surrounding the con- 
vent increased to more than fifty, the Novitiate 
was remodeled more than once, to meet the re- 
quirements of the flourishing Community. 

Not alone to the buildings and surrounding was 
this extension confined, — the mental plane, too, 
has been extended. In 1908, when the Mount 
reached her jubilee year, Collegiate branches 
were added to the curriculum of former years, 
and the advantages of a college course for those 
who wished to ascend to higher regions of Par- 
nassus. 



182 FRANCISCAN SISTERS 



SISTERS OF THE THIRD ORDER 
OF ST. FRANCIS OF THE PER- 
PETUAL ADORATION* 

1849 

For the accomplishment of His own great de- 
signs, God, in His infinite wisdom, frequently 
makes use of the weakest of his creatures. The 
verification of the truth contained in these words 
forces itself upon our attention as we glance at 
the history of the various religious orders and 
congregations that have been founded the world 
over. Simple in their origin, like the mustard 
seed in the Gospel, they have taken root and flour- 
ished, and, becoming trees, have put forth 
branches, in the shelter of which innumerable 
souls have found shelter and salvation. 

Nor is the congregation of the Sisters of the 
Third Order of St. Francis of the Perpetual Ador- 
ation an exception, otherwise it might never have 
seen, so to speak, the light of day. Its existence 
is due mainly to a chain of providential circum- 
stances which gradually led to the foundation of a 
religious congregation having for its chief, though 
not only, aim, the uninterrupted adoration of our 
Eucharistic Saviour in the Sacrament of His love. 

In the spring of 1849 a small community com- 
posed of six Sisters of the Third Order of St. Fran- 
cis arrived in America from Bavaria. They were 
provided with the highest recommendations from 
their Bishop and intended to settle in the diocese 
of Milwaukee, their main object being the foster- 

*Especially prepared by the Franciscan Sisters, St. Rose Convent, 
La Crosse, Wisconsin. 



OF PERPETUAL ADORATION 183 

ing of Catholicity in America. Arrived in Mil- 
waukee, the Sisters were the guests of the Very 
Rev. Vicar General, Martin Kundig, of Franklin, 
Milwaukee County, while awaiting the return 
from Europe of the Rt. Rev. Martin Henni, then 
Rishop of Milwaukee. He, upon his arrival some 
weeks later, advised them to take up their abode 
on the southern point of Milwaukee Ray, at No- 
joshing, now known as St. Francis, and there to 
establish their convent. Conformably to this ad- 
vice, the Sisters purchased a few acres of land 
and built a small convent, of which Sister M. 
Aemiliana Duerr was appointed first Mother Su- 
perior. 

The Sisters subsisted for some time on the 
means brought with them from Europe, but it 
soon became evident that some suitable employ- 
ment must be procured, otherwise the community 
could not exist. About this time, then, the dio- 
cesan Roys' Orphan Asylum was transferred from 
Milwaukee to St. Francis and placed in charge of 
the Sisters. 

Later on, in 1856, when the clerical seminary 
was erected at St. Francis, household work in 
abundance offered itself, and although this par- 
ticular line of work had not been the chief aim 
of the community, they willingly availed them- 
selves of the proffered assistance until a more 
suitable 'employment might present itself, and 
the institution procure services elsewhere. How- 
ever, the domestic labors at the seminary were so 
arduous and so continuous as to leave but little 
time for aught else, whereas prayer and contem- 
plation had ever been their chief aim. 

Hence, the original Sisters, Mother Aemiliana 
Duerr being one of them, disappointed in the ex- 



— 



184 FRANCISCAN SISTERS 

pectations and finding it difficult to inure them- 
selves in American ways and customs withdrew 
from the community intending to return to Eu- 
rope with a view to entering some religious con- 
gregation there. They, however, did not carry 
out this intention hut remained in Milwaukee, 
each endeavoring in her own way to live a life of 
prayer and mortification, although not bound by 
vows. 

Their mission was fulfilled. God had made use 
of them for the furtherance of His holy designs. 
In obedience to his call they had left home and 
country, to be instrumental in forming a congre- 
gation devoted to His honor, and although them- 
selves not persevering therein, they led truly holy 
lives in the world, and only with the greatest 
reverence are their names mentioned by the com- 
munity. Inscrutable are the ways of God. After 
living a life of retirement in the world for nearly 
half a century, Mother Aemiliana Duerr, feeling 
her earthly career drawing to a close, sought ad- 
mission, and was received as an inmate of St. 
Francis Hospital, LaCrosse, Wis., ending her days 
March 20, 1901, surrounded by the Sisters belong- 
ing to the community in the early history of which 
she had taken so active a part. 

Shortly after the departure of the primitive sis- 
ters, and just as soon as the constitution would 
permit, Sister M. Antonia Herb was elected Su- 
perioress, having made first vows only the year 
before. 

Mother Antonia seemed to be imbued with the 
same spirit as her predecessors regarding the con- 
ventual life. The mission which she had at heart 
as the object of the community was one of con- 
templative prayer in which the adoration of the 



OF PERPETUAL ADORATION 185 

Blessed Sacrament should figure prominently as 
the central devotion, focusing, so to speak, all 
the others, combined with corporal and spiritual 
ministry, thereby fostering Catholicity by prayer 
and good works. 

Subsequent events proving how futile their ef- 
forts would be to accomplish this cherished aim 
while attending to the household duties at the 
seminary, the work being ever on the increase 
and the number of Sisters limited, Mother Antonia 
decided that some certain occupation at the sem- 
inary must be given up just as soon as cir- 
cumstances would permit. Realizing its urgent 
necessity, she also dejtemimed jon tiie erection of 
a mother-house, and thus establish the community 
on a firm basis. On her also devolved the happy 
privilege of making the first veil, guimpe, habit, 
etc., which were thereafter to be portions of the 
religious dress of the Sisters. In this manner she 
became, as it were, the real foundress of the new 
religious congregation, always, however, in de- 
pendence on the saintly Rev. M. Heiss, afterward 
in 1868 consecrated Bishop of LaCrosse, who un- 
til his demise remained ever the prudent director, 
wise counsellor, and staunch friend of the com- 
munity, to whom at all times and in all difficul- 
ties they might turn for the fatherly advice which 
never failed them. 

Mother Antonia's plans for the erection of a 
mother-house were heartily acquiesced in by the 
Rev. M. Heiss, who succeeded in gaining also the 
sanction of other church dignitaries interested, 
but financially they were utterly unable to pro- 
mote the work. 

Finally, although battling with extreme pov- 
erty, besides meeting with many other difficulties, 



186 FRANCISCAN SISTERS 

property for the new convent was procured out- 
side the city of Jefferson, Wis., and in 1864, sur- 
mounting all obstacles, the Sisters took possession 
of their new home. Thus one great difficulty was 
removed, the Sisters at last had a mother-house 
which, although small, they could call their own, 
and the horizon of their labors was tinged with a 
brighter hue. But where there is no growth there 
can be no progress, nothing but decline and disso- 
lution, and as long as their field of labor did not 
extend beyond the seminary and orphanage, they 
would not secure many new members. Hence, 
the next thing to be done was to widen their 
sphere of employment by taking charge of paro- 
chial schools. While at the seminary, Mother 
Antonia had considered it a sacred duty to sum- 
mon about her at stated times the children of the 
neighborhood, to instruct them on the more im- 
portant points of religion, but a school at that 
time was entirely out of the question. Now, how- 
ever, immediately upon their arrival at Jefferson 
in 1864, preparations were begun for the estab- 
lishment of two schools in this city which were 
virtually the first taught by the Sisters. In this 
noble work they were ably assisted by Rev. K. C. 
Flasch, or "good Father Flasch" as he was affec- 
tionately called, then professor at the seminary, 
who, acting on the advice of physicians, had re- 
tired from duty to recuperate his failing health. 
Taking up his abode at the convent in Jefferson, 
he remained with the Sisters from May till De- 
cember, 1865, in the capacity of temporary chap- 
lain, and it was mainly due to his kindly offices 
and active co-operation that the Sisters succeeded 
in the arduous task of teaching. As time went by 
they were placed in charge of some of the parish 



OF PERPETUAL ADORATION 187 

schools in the diocese of Milwaukee. Though 
obliged to return to the seminary, Father Flasch 
ever after remained a true friend of the com- 
munity. 

In 1865, the gradual increase of the community 
demanding it, a new convent was erected. In De- 
cember of the same year Rev. F. X. Obermiiller 
was appointed by the Bishop as resident chaplain 
of the community, in which capacity he remained 
until his death in 1886; the spiritual welfare of 
the congregation was therefore fully assured. 

Meanwhile, the growing needs of the commu- 
nity and the gradual increase again necessitated 
the enlargement of the convent in 1868, which 
resulted in the erection of a large and commo- 
dious structure and a spacious chapel, which lat- 
ter was dedicated Dec. 8th. 

Notwithstanding these various improvements, 
and the growth of the congregation, eight years of 
experience fully demonstrated that Jefferson was 
not a favorable location for a mother-house, since 
the objects of the community could not be ob- 
tained; namely, the instruction of youth and care 
of orphans and the sick; therefore, a more suit- 
able one was desired. This opportunity offered 
when the Right Rev. M. Heiss informed Mother 
Antonia from Rome of the community's affiliation 
to the Minor Conventuals, and the approval of the 
Rule by the Minister General of the Order, and 
also, that wishing to have the Sisters in his own 
diocese, he had obtained permission that the 
mother-house and novitiate be transferred to La- 
Crosse under the title and invocation of St. Rose 
de Viterbo. He, therefore, directed Mother An- 
tonia to take measures at once toward erecting 
the necessary buildings. In compliance with his 



188 FRANCISCAN SISTERS 

Lordship's wish, this work was planned and final- 
ly begun in 1870, and in June of the following 
year — 1871 — the main part of the structure being 
completed, the sisters, numbering one hundred 
and seven, took possession of the new mother- 
house. Later a chapel was begun, and in 1874 
dedicated under the title Maria Angelorum. 

Mother Antonia had now attained two of the 
objects she had in view, the founding of a mother- 
house and the establishment of the community on 
a firm and enduring basis. But this third, the 
most cherished desire of her courageous heart, 
had not yet materialized, namely, the introduc- 
tion of the Perpetual Adoration. 

By dint of hard labor, sufficient means were 
finally acquired to facilitate the erection of a small 
chapel for Perpetual Adoration, and on Aug. 1, 
1877, Mother Antonia beheld her lifelong wish at 
last materialized, her promise fulfilled to the best 
of her ability, for on that day the God of the 
Eucharist took up His permanent abode in their 
midst. 

Since that day, until the present hour, never 
for a moment has He been left alone. Uninterrupt- 
edly, day and night, has the adoration been con- 
tinued, for more than a quarter of a century, the 
Sisters finding their chief delight in keeping with 
choirs — angelic and unseen — prayerful vigil, as 
guards of honor round Love's Victim imprisoned 
in the Sacred Host, whom faith conceals under 
the Eucharistic veils and yet reveals to their all- 
believing hearts. 

Meanwhile, provisions had also been made for 
the orphans of the Diocese of LaCrosse. In the 
Diocesan Boys' Orphan Home the Sisters had ren- 
dered services since 1875, as also later in the 



OF PERPETUAL ADORATION 189 

Girls' Orphan Home, begun and completed in 1878 
at Sparta, Wis., but which was transferred to La- 
Grosse in 1890, where the sisters erected a more 
commodious edifice, under the patronage of St. 
Ann. 

And now Mother Antonia's mission in life was 
accomplished. She had labored unceasingly for 
the well-being of the community, had fulfilled the 
trust committed to her by God, had fought the 
good fight, but the crown awaiting her was nearer 
than she anticipated. In the midst of the bright- 
est prospects under which the community was 
now progressing, she was suddenly called from 
her field of labor by a sudden, though not unpro- 
vided death, Jan. 26, 1882, sincerely mourned by 
all who knew her. Mother Ludovica Keller was 
chosen to succeed her as Superioress, which office 
she has held ever since, having been repeatedly 
re-elected, and celebrating Feb. 26, 1907, her Sil- 
ver Jubilee as Mother General of the congrega- 
tion. 

The blessing of God still rested with the com- 
munity and it continued to prosper. In 1883 it 
became incorporated, and the same year St. Fran- 
cis Hospital was completed and opened. Three 
years later, the original little chapel of Adoration 
was replaced by a larger one, which was dedi- 
cated to the Sacred Heart June 8, 1886. 

The steady growth of the congregation again 
necessitating it, a building used principally as a 
Teachers' Training School was next erected, in 
1892. 

In 1905 St. Anthony's Hospital, Carroll, Iowa, 
was completed and at present plans for a Domes- 
tic Science School in the same city, to be con- 
ducted by the members of the community, are 
under consideration. 



190 FRANCISCAN SISTERS 

In 1903 St. Mary's Domestic School was estab- 
lished in Sparta, Wis., while at Odanah, Wis., the 
Sisters are in charge of St. Mary's Indian Board- 
ing School. 

The Chapel also having become too small to 
accommodate the ever-increasing number of Sis- 
ters, a more spacious one was planned, the cor- 
ner stone of which was laid by Rt. Rev. J. Schwe- 
bach, present Bishop of LaCrosse, and four years 
later, Aug. 2, 1906, under the title of "Maria An- 
gelorum," his Lordship consecrated this beautiful 
chapel. Had Mother Antonia lived to see this day, 
hers would have been a glad heart truly, for in 
this chapel she would behold in their fulness, her 
highest anticipations realized. 

In February, 1910, the Holy Father graciously 
granted the Congregation its definite approval, 
and its Constitutions a temporary one. Thus the 
noble work begun under adverse circumstances, 
but with undaunted confidence in God, stands to- 
day in full vigor. 

At present, in 1912, the community numbers 
four hundred and fifty professed Sisters, forty 
novices, and forty postulants, who besides those 
stationed in the mother-house, are active in two 
hospitals, two Domestic Science Schools, one In- 
dian School, and sixty-one parochial schools con- 
ducted in six different dioceses. 

With sentiment of deepest gratitude the Sisters 
look back on the years, numbering more than half 
a century, that have passed since the establish- 
ment of the community, while with a courage 
founded on the sanctity of their noble calling, and 
the immovable basis of God's protecting care do 
they look forward to the future knowing well that 
He who has been their Keeper in the past, will 
also be their Surety for the days that are to come. 



DOMINICAN SISTERS 191 

SISTERS OF CHARITY OF ST. 
AUGUSTINE * 

1850 

The Congregation of Sisters of Charity of St. 
Augustine was established at Lakewood, near 
Cleveland, Ohio, in the year 1850 by Sisters from 
Boulogne. 

The Sisters conduct establishments throughout 
the diocese of Cleveland. 



*Catholic Directory of 1912, published by P. J. Kenedy & Sons, 
New York. 



DOMINICAN SISTERS OF THE HOLY 

NAME CONGREGATION IN 

CALIFORNIA * 

1850 

When the religious Orders were exiled from 
Spain by Queen Christina, Joseph Sadoc Ale- 
many, O. P., was among those forced to seek their 
homes among foreign nations. After several years 
of labor in the eastern part of the United States, 
he felt the call of the missionary and resolved to 
pass the remainder of his life among the Spanish- 
speaking settlements of the Pacific Slope. 

He realized, however, the need of religious 
women to care for the children of his new flocks. 
When he was consecrated Bishop of Monterey, 
California, in 1850, he turned his eyes towards the 
Old World and there found a zealous co-worker 

*Furnished by the Dominican Sisters of the Holy Name Congre- 
gation in California, Dominican Convent, San Rafael, California. 



192 DOMINICAN SISTERS 

in Mother Mary Goemaere, a nun of the Second 
Order of St. Dominic in Paris. She came in re- 
sponse to his appeal, accompanied by two postu- 
lants from one of the convents of the Third Order 
established by Lacordaire. At Somerset, Ohio, 
the two French postulants were exchanged for 
Sister Mary Francis Stafford, professed, and Sis- 
ter Mary Aloysia O'Neil, yet a novice. 

The same year, Bishop Alemany, Father Vilar- 
rasa, 0. P., and Mother Mary with her companion 
Sisters set out for California, via New York, As- 
pinwall and Panama. From Aspinwall to Pana- 
ma the journey was made on muleback, there be- 
ing no other means of travel. On November 16 
the travelers left Panama on the steamer "Co- 
lumbus," reaching San Francisco on the 6th of 
December. 

In a short time was opened in Monterey the 
first convent school in California. The house se- 
lected for the purpose was an unattractive adobe 
house. The Academy was placed under the pro- 
tection of St. Catherine of Sienna, after whom it 
was named. It is hard to conceive the hardships 
through which these daughters of St. Dominic 
passed during those early days in California. In 
fact, it sounds almost fabulous to say that their 
butter came from Ireland, their flour from Chile, 
the flour costing, in the famine year of 1852, 
eighty dollars a barrel. Mother Mary Goemaere, 
the noble foundress, who through all the hard- 
ships of a pioneer life, cheered and comforted the 
younger Sisters, was born in Belgium in 1809. She 
came of a noble family and was closely related to 
some of the first Sisters of Notre Dame of Namur. 
To the last she was an exemplary religious; not 
even in old age — and she was over eighty when 



DOMINICAN SISTERS 193 

she died — was she known to be late in choir, re- 
fectory, recreation or any religious duty. 

The next pioneer of the Dominican Sisters in 
California was Sister Mary Francis Stafford. She 
was born in England about 1815. Early in life she 
vowed her life to God, and spent the rest of her 
days in leading little children to Him. It was her 
special delight to prepare them for Holy Com- 
munion, and today are handed down, from 
mother to daughter, the lessons learned so long 
ago from Sister M. Francis. 

The companion of Sister Francis was mother 
Louisa, known in girlhood as Miss Fannie O'Niel. 
She was born in Virginia in 1824. Her father hav- 
ing died during her infancy, she became the 
adopted sister of Mrs. William Tecumseh Sher- 
man. 

In 1852 the Sisters were unable to accommodate 
all their pupils, owing to the increased attend- 
ance. As a result they purchased a hotel which 
was being erected. One of the first to enter the 
new novitiate as a Sister was Dofia Maria Concep- 
cion Arguello, the daughter of the Governor, Jose 
Arguello. She was born in San Francisco in 1790. 
Count Van Resanoff, the Russian Envoy to the 
Californias, is said to have fallen desperately in 
love with Dona Concepcion while he was in 
America, and to this legend we owe the beautiful 
poem by the distinguished California poet, Bret 
Harte, the title being "Concepcion De Arguello." 
The more practical side of her life, however, and 
the one which shows her to us as the great, lov- 
able woman that she was, is the indefatigable 
labor in the Lord's vineyard which flourished by 
the waves of the Pacific. She received the white 
habit of St. Dominic on April 11, 1851. Her death 

13 



194 DOMINICAN SISTERS 

occurred on December 23, 1857. She sleeps in the 
Dominican cemetery at Benicia, high on the hill 
which overlooks the bay, where tides of the Pa- 
cific struggle with the waves of the Sacramento 
River. It was of Sister Rose Castro, a companion 
novice of Sister Dominica Arguello, that Arch- 
bishop Alemany said on hearing of her death, "I 
know not whether we should pray for her or to 
her, for Sister Rose was a perfect religious." She 
died in 1858 and was buried on the feast of Cor- 
pus Christi. 

In 1854 St. Catherine's Academy was removed 
from Monterey to Benicia. This school was, with 
Notre Dame College, San Jose, the foremost 
among the educational institutions of the State. 
Many tender memories still cling about old St. 
Catherine's, for scattered over the world may be 
found graduates of this school, many of non-Cath- 
olic parentage, whose families recognized the ad- 
vantage of a convent training for their daughters. 

In 1862 a school was opened in San Francisco, 
under the protection of St. Rose of Lima. The 
building first occupied by the Sisters was used as 
a church on Sunday and as an academy on week 
days. On October 6, 1893, St. Rose's Academy was 
destroyed by fire. The new building was opened 
late in the year 1900. This building withstood the 
shocks of the earthquake and was for a time used 
as a temporary city hall. The most remarkable 
among the Sisters of St. Rose's in the early days 
was Sister M. Thomas. She was born Christmas 
Day, 1840, in New York, accompanying her par- 
ents, the Goldens, to California, shortly after the 
discovery of gold. She was of an uncommonly 
strong character, with high literary attainments, 
and she generously employed them in the service 
of her pupils. 



DOMINICAN SISTERS 195 

On November 25, 1868, Sisters were sent to St. 
Vincent's Orphan Asylum, San Rafael, to take 
charge of the department of housekeeping, as the 
children had been much neglected by the hired 
help of the institution. Archbishop Alemany con- 
sidered that the diocese was too poor to recom- 
pense the Sisters for their labors, but he assured 
the Sisters that a blessing would rest on St. Cath- 
erine's which would be of greater value than gold 
or silver. The Sisters soon found that no atten- 
tion whatever had been paid to the personal 
cleanliness of the children. They had a hard task 
to perform, and for many days, before they suc- 
ceeded in bringing this department to becoming 
order, but their labors were sweetened by the 
thought that they were working for Him who for 
us had become a little child, and whose promise 
that the least service rendered to His poor w T ould 
be reckoned as done unto Himself w T as a constant 
stimulus to their charity. In August, 1885, Sisters 
were sent to instruct the younger boys ; a few years 
later the entire school was taught by the Sisters. 
They continued their work until 1895, when St. 
Vincent's was placed under the care of the Chris- 
tian Brothers, in whose charge it still remains. 

St. Vincent Ferrer's day school was opened in 
1870, St. Agnes' Academy, Stockton, boarding and 
day school, in 1876, and St. Mary's, San Leandro, 
in 1887. 

In Magnolia Valley, in what is known as the 
Coleman tract, was erected in 1889 the Dominican 
College, worthy in every respect of its choice sur- 
roundings. The College is accredited to the Uni- 
versity of California. 

The rapid increase of members of the Domini- 
can Sisters of the Holy Name Congregation, un- 



196 SISTERS OF ST. FRANCIS 

der the careful administration of Mother Mary 
Louis, the present Mother-General, foreshadows 
many a great and noble deed which will be done 
by the self-sacrificing daughters of St. Dominic 
in the days to come, treading like angels the green 
slopes of the Pacific shore. 



SISTERS OF ST. FRANCIS* 

1851 

In 1851, when Indiana was in her crude state of 
civilization, the saintly, noble-minded and zealous 
priest of God, Rev. Francis Joseph Rudolf, re- 
alized his burning desire of founding a Commu- 
nity of Sisters of St. Francis to assist him in sav- 
ing souls, by instructing the young and minister- 
ing to the needy. He had applied to the Fran- 
ciscans of Vienna, Austria, and in response to his 
call, arrived at Oldenburg, January 6, Sister Te- 
resa Hackelmeier and companion. Gentle Sister 
Teresa was appointed Mother Superior, and ere 
long youthful aspirants begged admission, anx- 
ious to place themselves under her amiable, yet 
potent guidance, and the new-born Community 
took possession at once of their microcosm. The 
new convent grew slowly at first, but steadily, on 
and on, mid sunshine and shadow; yea, violent 
storms at times, until the humble frame structure, 
set in the midst of a pristine forest, has given 
place to magnificent and well-equipped buildings. 

Years have rolled by and storms have raged, yet 

*From material furnished by the Sisters of St. Francis, Convent, 
College, and Academy of the Immaculate Conception, Oldenburg, Ind. 



SISTERS OF ST. FRANCIS 197 

green and fresh will bloom in perennial beauty 
the rich fruitage of the sainted founders, the 
friends of the widow and the orphan, the apostles 
of Catholic education in Indiana. 

Oldenburg, Franklin County, Indiana, remains 
the radiating point from which hundreds of teach- 
ers go forth into different states to labor in the 
cause of the Great Master Divine. 

The College and Academy of the Immaculate 
Conception at the mother-house were organized in 
the course of time with a view to afford ample 
opportunity to those striving for a higher, thor- 
ough and practical education at a moderate ex- 
pense. True, therefore, to the spirit of seraphic 
St. Francis and the sainted founders, the charges 
have been made very reasonable and within the 
reach of even those not so highly favored with 
this world's wealth and luxury. The institution 
is constantly increasing its facilities, intensifying 
its excellent course of study and offering addi- 
tional advantages without placing the students 
to any greater expense. Nothing, in short, con- 
ducive to the development of body, mind and 
heart, and tending to the health, comfort, progress 
and happiness, is overlooked. 

The buildings are magnificent throughout, 
planned, furnished and equipped agreeably to 
the most modern and sanitary methods for edu- 
cational purposes in every detail and with a view 
to home comforts. 

The grounds, secluded and spacious, are laid in 
a tasteful style and offer every incentive to in- 
vigorating and healthful exercise. The quiet se- 
clusion of rural environment create an atmos- 
phere of animated cheerfulness and earnest study. 

Not to instruct only, but to educate truly the 



198 BENEDICTINE NUNS 

students, preparing them for the sphere in life 
kind Providence may assign them, is the constant 
aim of the Sisters of St. Francis, Oldenburg, In- 
diana. 



BENEDICTINE NUNS * 
1852 

Saint Scholastica, the Sister of Saint Benedict, 
is generally regarded as the foundress of the Ben- 
edictine Nuns. According to Saint Gregory the 
Great, Saint Scholastica presided over such a com- 
munity, but the data as to the foundation and 
Rule of the first Benedictines is lacking in definite- 
ness. However, it appears certain that as St. 
Benedict's Rule began to extend abroad, women 
as well as men organized religious communities 
in accordance with its principles. 

Convents were founded in Gaul by St. Csesarius 
and St. Aurelian of Aries, St. Martin of Tours and 
St. Columbanus of Luxeuil, and up to the Sixth 
century the Rules of St. Caesarius and St. Colum- 
banus were in general use. In 620, these were 
supplanted by the Benedictine Rule. 

The Benedictine Rule was widely spread by 
Charlemagne and his son Louis the Pious. Be- 
fore the end of the Ninth century this Rule was 
enforced in all the Benedictine Convents of the 
Empire. 

In England the earliest Benedictine Convents for 
women were established at Folkstone in 630. The 
first Benedictine Nuns in Germany came from 
England in the Eighth century, having been 
brought over by St. Boniface to assist him in his 

* Catholic Encyclopedia. 



SISTERS OF CHARITY 199 

work of education and to provide a means of edu- 
cation for their sex amongst the newly evangelized 
Teutonic races. 

Sts. Lioba, Thecla and Walburga, Gertrude and 
Mechtilde are names that shed lustre on the Ben- 
edictine Nuns of Germany. 

The first establishment of the Benedictine Nuns 
in America was at St. Mary's, Pennsylvania, where 
Abbot Wimmer settled some German nuns from 
Eichstatt in 1852. St. Benedict's Convent at St. 
Joseph, Minnesota, founded in 1857, is the larg- 
est Benedictine Convent in America. Other 
houses of the Order have been successfully es- 
tablished in the United States and the nuns in 
the various houses are chiefly occupied with the 
work of education, which comprises elementary 
schools for secondary education. All the Ameri- 
can Convents are subject to the bishops of their 
respective dioceses. 



SISTERS OF CHARITY OF THE IN- 
CARNATE WORD OF THE 
BLESSED SACRAMENT* 

1853 

The Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of 
the Incarnate Word of the Blessed Sacrament was 
founded in the year 1625. In 1853 the first foun- 
dation of the Order was made in the United States 
— in Brownsville, Texas. Since then other foun- 
dations have been made throughout the State of 

*From the Catholic Directory of 1912, published by P. J. Kennedy 
& Sons, New York City, N. Y. 



200 PRESENTATION NUNS 

Texas and in Mexico. The various houses of 
the Congregation are independent of each other 
and at each house is a novitiate for the Sisters. 



SISTERS OF THE HOLY HUMILITY 
OF MARY* 

1854 

The Congregation of the Holy Humility of Mary 
was founded in 1854, by Rev. J. J. Begel. The 
principal works of the Sisters are teaching, the 
care of the sick and the maintenance and care of 
orphans. The mother-house of the Community 
is at Villa Maria, Lawrence County, Pennsylvania. 

*From Shea's "History of the Catholic Church in the U. S." 



SISTERS OF THE PRESENTATION, 
B. V. M.* 

1854 

The Congregation of the Sisters of the Presen- 
tation of the Blessed Virgin Mary was founded in 
Cork, Ireland, by the saintly Miss Nano Nagle, in 
the year 1777. 

In 1783, the Holy See approved of the rules of 
the Order. In the year 1854, the United States 
welcomed a colony of the Sisters from Ireland; 
the first foundation was then made in San Fran- 

*From Murray's "Popular History of the Catholic Church in the 
United States." 




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SISTERS OF SAINT FRANCIS 201 

cisco, California, where the mother-house is now 
located, on Masonic Avenue. 

The chief object of the Order is the education 
of youth and the instruction of the poor. 



THE SISTERS OF THE THIRD 
ORDER OF ST. FRANCIS* 

(Philadelphia Foundation) 
1855 

The Congregation of the Sisters of the Third 
Order of St. Francis was founded at Philadelphia, 
Penn., in 1855, by Blessed John Nepomucene Neu- 
mann, C. Ss. R;, Bishop of Philadelphia. 

On April 9, 1855, the Right Rev. Bishop, of 
Blessed Memory, invested with the habit of St. 
Francis three devout women, Marianne Bachmann 
(Mother Mary Francis), Barbara Boll (Sister 
Mary Margaret) and Anna Dorn (Sister Mary Bar- 
nardina), who were desirous of devoting their 
lives to the service of the poor; especially the sick. 

With the blessing of God, this Community of 
Sisters increased so that they were enabled to as- 
sume the care of the sick, of orphans, of the aged, 
and the education of children in parish schools. 

After the death of the first Superior General 
and Foundress, Mother Mary Francis, in 1863, the 
two branch houses established in Buffalo and Sy- 
racuse, in the state of New York, became inde- 
pendent of the mother-house in Philadelphia. An- 
other foundation, established by and separated 

*Especially prepared by the Sisters of St. Francis, Glen Eiddle, Pa. 



202 SISTERS OF THE THIRD 

from the house of Buffalo, exists in the city of 
Pittsburg, Penn. 

The Philadelphia Institute, which remained un- 
divided, has since spread over the United States in 
fifteen dioceses, so that at the present time it in- 
cludes eighty houses (forming three Provinces), 
and over eight hundred Professed Sisters who are 
employed in forty-two parochial schools, four 
academies, eight schools for Indians and negroes, 
twelve hospitals, nine homes and orphanages, and 
other works of charity. 

In 1896 the mother-house of the Institute was, 
with the consent and approval of the Most Rev. 
P. J. Ryan, Archbishop of Philadelphia, trans- 
ferred to Glen Riddle, Delaware County, Penn., 
where the Novitiate is established. Here also the 
general direction of the entire Institute is located. 



SISTERS OF THE THIRD ORDER 
OF ST. DOMINIC* 

Congregation of St. Catherine of Siena. 

1858 

In the year 1858, Mother Renedicta Bauer and 
Mother Thomasina Ginker, Foundresses of this 
Community, filled with an ardent zeal and true 
missionary spirit to work for souls in America — 
a field so large, and the laborers so few — came to 
this country with the permission of their Supe- 
riors and the sanction of their Ordinary, Bishop 
Ignatius Senestry of Ratisbonne, to establish a 

*Especially prepared by the Sisters of the Third Order of St. 
Dominic, Congregation of St. Catherine of Siena, St. Catherine's Con- 
vent, Racine, Wisconsin. 




CONVENT OF OUR LADY OF ANGELS 
Sisters of St. Francis. Glen Kiddle, Pa. 



ORDER OF ST. DOMINIC 203 

branch house of the Dominicans from the ancient 
mother-house of Holy Cross, Ratisbonne, Bavaria, 
Europe. This convent of the Holy Cross was 
founded in 1237, only sixteen years after the death 
of the illustrious founder of the Order, St. 
Dominic. 

The Mothers left their dear convent in Ratis- 
bonne with a heart ready for sacrifices, but little 
realizing the great difficulties and trials they 
would have to encounter in their new foundation. 

On arriving in America, Mother Benedicta and 
Mother Thomasina, for a time made their home 
with the Dominican Sisters in Williamsburg, a 
previous foundation of Mother Benedicta's in 1854. 
Later they visited their co-religionists — the Do- 
minican Sisters in Somerset and in Zanesville, 
Ohio, — intending to establish a mother-house. 
However, as neither was found suitable for this 
purpose, the Mothers, upon the invitation of Bish- 
op M. Henni and later Archbishop of Milwaukee, 
came to Wisconsin. Their first attempt was 
at Green Bay, where they arrived in April, 1861 — 
accompanied by two young postulants that had 
joined them from the School Sisters of Notre 
Dame, Milwaukee, where the two zealous Mothers 
had been accorded warm hospitality for quite a 
time. 

These two postulants, Mary Oberbrunner and 
Cunigunda Loesch, were admitted to the holy 
habit in St. Mary's Church, Green Bay, 1861, under 
the names of Sister M. Hyacintha and Sister M. 
Rose. They took charge of St. Mary's Parochial 
School and conducted a small select school and 
music class. Finding the future prospects of 
Green Bay at that time rather discouraging, Bish- 
op Henni advised the Sisters, who, in the mean- 



204 SISTERS OF THE THIRD 

time had increased their number to six, to locate 
at Racine, which they did in 1862, and there 
the now flourishing Community has ever re- 
mained. For a short time the little Com- 
munity had a home in a private dwelling 
house opposite St. Patrick's Church, North Side, 
until they succeeded in buying four lots and a 
two-story brick building on Twelfth Street, South, 
the present site of St. Catherine's. 

In 1864 the first addition to the building was 
erected. To lessen the expense in building, the 
young Sisters then — among them the present Pri- 
oress-General, Mother Cecilia, — did all the lathing 
of the building. In September, 1864, a day and 
boarding school was opened. This was the small 
beginning of the present St. Catherine's Academy, 
whose growth, though slow, has been steady and 
solid. The Sisters also had charge of the paro- 
chial schools, St. Patrick's and St. Joseph's, and 
later on St. Mary's. In 1865 a chapel proper was 
erected and dedicated in honor of St. Dominic. 

Trials and afflictions more than once threatened 
to annihilate the struggling Community. Its foun- 
dress, Mother Benedicta, after a long and painful 
illness, died, fortified by the Rites of the Church, 
October 13, 1865, aged 63 years. She was a 
woman of noble character, a good religious and 
an able scholar, especially in music. Her career 
in America had been full of hardships and priva- 
tions, but her indomitable energy overcame all 
difficulties and she knew not the word fail. 

Mother Thomasina Ginker, appointed Prioress 
by Bishop Henni, succeeded Mother Benedicta, 
but held the office for only eleven short months. 
Worn out with grief and disheartened by the 
dark looking future, she became an easy prey to 



ORDER OF ST. DOMINIC 205 

typhoid fever, which she contracted while nursing 
a young novice. The fever at once took a firm 
hold, and she succumbed to the disease, after an 
illness of only two weeks, on September 6, 1866, 
at the early age of thirty-three years. 

It would be difficult to describe the condition of 
the poor Sisterhood at the time of Mother Thom- 
asina's death. Six other members were down with 
typhoid fever; there were no funds, consequently 
no credit, which can be illustrated by this in- 
stance: A package was brought by the express- 
man the day after Mother's death; there was not 
twenty-five cents to pay the delivery charges for 
the package and it was taken back to the office 
till the requisite amount could be obtained. In 
fact, the Community was on the point of dissolu- 
tion, but the all-seeing eye of God watched over it 
and sustained by His grace, they remained faith- 
ful and persevered under their heavy crosses and 
trials. Thus the founders of St. Catherine's Con- 
vent passed away within the shore space of three 
years from its foundation, and left the young 
Sisters to their own resources, totally inexpe- 
rienced. 

The required number of Sisters lacking for a 
formal election of Prioress, the Rt. Rev. Bishop 
Henni appointed Sister M. Hyacintha Oberbrunner 
and Sister M. Cecilia Fox, Prioress and Sub-Pri- 
oress, which positions they held for thirty-five 
years. 

In the time of their financial distress, the good 
and kind Bishop Henni permitted the Sisters, for 
several years, to solicit aid throughout the diocese. 
He also recommended the struggling Community 
to the generosity of the late King Louis I. of Ba- 
varia, who greatly relieved the distress of the 



206 SISTERS OF THE THIRD 

Sisters by liberal donations." However, the trials 
were not yet at an end. A member of the Com- 
munity — dissatisfied with existing affairs and hav- 
ing no faith as to its future success — caused the 
withdrawal, by their parents, of five novices and 
several promising postulants, the few remaining 
members becoming disheartened were once again 
on the verge of dissolution, but the all-merciful 
God sent help when all hope seemed gone. 

In the person of Rev. J. A. Birkhaeuser he sent 
a chaplain who lifted the struggling little band 
of Sisters from their crushed condition, implanted 
in them the true religious spirit and was their 
spiritual guide for forty years. His last breath 
went out in presence of the tabernacle where he 
knelt in prayer and meditation on the evening of 
March 3, 1908, when a stroke of apoplexy put an 
end to his saintly life. R. I. P. He was the author 
of Birkhaeuser's Church History, used in most of 
the Seminaries of the United States and in Great 
Britain. About July, 1876, the Community received 
the startling intelligence that the will of the late 
Mother Thomasina was to be contested on the 
grounds of illegality. Her relatives, the Ginker 
family in Bavaria, laid claim to the property 
owned by the Community at the time of the death 
of Mother Thomasina. She, being ignorant of the 
laws of the country, had bequeathed the property 
to two of the Sisters to be held in trust for St. 
Catherine's Academy. This was illegal, as St. 
Catherine's Academy was not a corporate body at 
the time. A lawsuit to make a test case of this 
was brought against the Community, and in two 
instances, decided in favor of the plaintiffs. How- 
ever, a change of lawyers and handling the case in 
the cause of equity, the defendants finally gained 




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ORDER OF ST. DOMINIC 207 

the lawsuit, which lasted three years — a time of 
grave anxiety to the Community, yet the trouble 
was borne with true Christian resignation, and the 
holy bonds of sisterly affection were thereby much 
strengthened. From this time forward, God's 
blessing seemed to rest on the convent, as the im- 
provements made in rapid succession would in- 
dicate; several additions and a handsome new 
chapel were consecrated by Archbishop Heiss, in 
1885. In 1874 St. Catherine's Academy was char- 
tered with full powers for conferring degrees. 

The first General Chapter was held in 1896 
when Mother Hyacintha Brunner was chosen Pri- 
oress-General; again in 1901, when Mother Emily 
Acker was elected Prioress-General; and in 1907 
when the present Prioress-General, Mother Cecilia 
Fox, was elected. 

A handsome and commodious new building, 
Holy Rosary Academy, was erected at Corliss, 
Wisconsin, seven miles west of Racine, in 1907. 
On April 23, 1908, the boarding pupils from St. 
Catherine's, Racine were transferred to Holy Ro- 
sary, while St. Catherine's continues the Day 
Academy. Both schools are in a flourishing con- 
dition. Holy Rosary Academy was erected a 
Priory in August, 1907, with Mother Alphonsa Cor- 
ry as its first Prioress. 

At Corliss, St. Anne's Home for Ladies, was 
opened in September, 1908. This is in charge of 
the Sisters; it provides a real and restful home 
for elderly ladies, where they have the best of 
care. A beautiful little chapel is in connection 
with the Home. 

The main object of this Congregation is the 
education of Catholic youth. The Sisters conduct 
two Academies, a Ladies' Home, and thirty-eight 



208 DOMINICAN SISTERS 

parochial schools in different dioceses. The 
mother-house and novitiate are at Racine, Wis- 
consin. The time of probation for postulants is 
from six months to one year; the novitiate covers 
two years; simple vows are made twice, for three 
years each time; perpetual vows then being made 
at the end of six years. 

The Congregation of St. Catherine of Siena was 
affiliated with the Third Order of Saint Dominic in 
1877, by the Master-General, Joseph Mary Sanvito. 
The Rule and Constitution, adapted to the work 
and the circumstances of the American Missions, 
were approved by the Holy See in 1905 and again 
in 1910. 

The year 1912 marks an era in the annals of the 
Community — fifty years of hard labor and suc- 
cess — the Golden Jubilee of the Congregation. 
The Community is now in a flourishing condition; 
the little seed planted in 1862 in the garden of St. 
Dominic, has multiplied a hundredfold; the mem- 
bership in these fifty years has grown from two 
members to over three hundred; while many of 
the hard workers of early days have been called 
to their heavenly home, there to receive the re- 
ward, we will hope, of the good and faithful ser- 
vant. 



FRANCISCAN SISTERS 209 



SISTERS OF THE POOR OF 
ST. FRANCIS* 

1858 

The Sisters of the Poor of St. Francis form a 
Congregation, founded by the Venerable Mother 
Frances Schervier at Aachen in the year 1845, 
whose members observe the Rule of the Th' :d Or- 
der of Saint Francis, as given by Leo X. for Ter- 
tiaries living in Community, and Constitutions 
adapted to their special work: the care of the 
sick poor, dependent upon charity. 

Frances Schervier, born in Aachen, Germany, 
January 3, 1819, was the child of John Henry Cas- 
par Schervier, proprietor of a needle manufactory 
and Associate Magistrate of the city, and Maria 
Louisa Migeon, descendant of a wealthy French 
family. Frances' education was thorough, and it 
was always her desire to serve the sick and the 
poor. She began by giving them food and cloth- 
ing, laboring for them, and visiting them in their 
homes and hospitals. In 1840 she joined a chari- 
table society in order to exercise this charity more 
actively. 

In 1844 Frances with four other young ladies, 
Catherine Daverkosen, Gertrude Frank, Joanna 
Bruchhans and Catherine Lassen, became mem- 
bers of the Third Order of St. Francis. The fol- 
lowing year, with the approbation of their pastor, 
they went to live together in a small house beyond 
St. James' Gate, and Frances was chosen Superior 
of the little Community. The life of the Sisters 

♦Especially prepared by The Sisters of the Poor of St. Francis, 
Convent of St. Clara, Hartwell, Cincinnati, Ohio. 

14 



210 SISTERS OF THE POOR 

was conventual, and the time spent in religious 
exercises, household duties, and caring for the 
sick-poor. 

In the latter part of the year 1848 a mild form 
of cholera broke out in Aachen, followed by an 
epidemic of small-pox, and. an infirmary was 
opened by the Sisters in an old Dominican build- 
ing, the property of the city. The Sisters offered 
their services as nurses and they were authorized 
by the city to take up their abode in the building. 
New members were admitted in 1849, when the 
Sisters were called to take charge of an infirmary 
for cholera patients in Burtscheid. In 1850 they 
established a hospital for incurables in the old 
Dominican building, and the home nursing and 
charity kitchens in different parishes were en- 
trusted to them. In 1850 the "Constitutions" were 
compiled and submitted to the Archbishop of Co- 
logne. They were approved, and on August 12, 
1851, Mother Frances and her twenty-three asso- 
ciates were invested with the habit of St. Francis. 
On June 13, 1850, they took charge of a hospital 
in Juelich (later abandoned). In 1851 a founda- 
tion was established at Bonn and also at Aachen 
for the care of the female prisoners in the house 
of detention. When the home of the Poor Clares*, 
before their suppression in 1803, was offered for 
sale in the summer of 1852, Mother Frances pui> 
chased the spacious building for a convent, — the 
first mother-house. The Congregation grew stead- 
ily and rapidly. In 1852 two houses were founded 
in Cologne, and a hospital was opened at Burt- 
scheid. Other European foundations followed un- 
til the year of 1858, which year marks an import- 
ant epoch in the development of the Congrega- 
tion, namely: The transplanting of the Congre- 




VEN. MOTHER FRANCES SCHERVIER 



of St. Francis 
Born January 3, 1810, Died December 14, 1876 



OF ST. FRANCIS 211 

gation to America. Mrs. Sarah Peter, a convert 
of Cincinnati, Ohio, received a commission from 
the Archbishop in that city, to bring German Sis- 
ters to America to care for the destitute German 
poor, and Irish Sisters for the Irish poor. While 
in Rome in 1857 she submitted the plan to the 
Holy Father, who advised her to apply to some 
Austrian Bishop for German Sisters. Cardinal 
Von Geissel, the Archbishop of Cologne, earnestly 
recommended the Congregation of Mother Fran- 
ces for the purpose. In Ireland Mrs. Peter suc- 
ceeded in obtaining the Sisters of Mercy. Mother 
Frances resolved to found a House in Cincinnati, 
and on August 24, 1858, the six Sisters, chosen by 
her, set sail for America. Upon their arrival in 
Cincinnati, the Sisters of the Good Shepherd kind- 
ly gave them hospitality. Soon they received the 
offer of the gratuitous use of a vacated orphanage 
for their patients. The following year three more 
Sisters arrived from Europe, and in March they 
purchased several lots at the corner of Linn and 
Betts Streets (the present site of St. Mary's hos- 
pital), and began constructing a hospital. More 
Sisters soon arrived from the mother-house, and in 
1860 they were able to establish a branch-house in 
Covington, Kentucky. 

In the spring of 1861 Mrs. Peter offered her res- 
idence to the Sisters for a Novitiate, and Home for 
the Clarisses or Recluses, a contemplative Branch 
of the Congregation, for whose coming she had 
long been negotiating with Mother Frances. In Oc- 
tober, 1861, three recluses came to America, and 
from their arrival up to the present time, per- 
petual Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament 
has been carried on without interruption in this 
Novitiate of the Convent of St. Clara. Mrs. Peter 



212 SISTERS OF THE POOR 

reserved for herself the use of several rooms in 
her residence, wherein she lived a life of retire- 
ment until her death in February, 1877. The Con- 
gregation owes much of its rapid progress in the 
New World to the influence of this noble lady. 

The object of the Congregation of the Sisters 
of the .Poor of St. Francis is the personal sancti- 
fication of its members through the observance 
of the religious vows in the spirit of St. Francis 
of Assisi, and the practice of works of mercy 
upon the poor and sick. 

The principal requisite for admission is an 
earnest desire of personal sanctification, com- 
bined with a sincere purpose to devote all the fac- 
ulties of soul and body to God in the service of 
the poor and sick, in the spirit of their holy pa- 
tron, St. Francis, which spirit is, above all, one of 
poverty, humility and penance. Besides those to 
be admitted must be of blameless character, of 
good disposition and sound mind, possessing suf- 
ficient ability to acquire a knowledge of the du- 
ties of the religious life. They should have fair 
health, should not be deformed, or have other 
bodily defects, as a good constitution and good 
health are requisite to fulfill the duties of their 
calling. A common school education is also re- 
quired. Moreover the candidates are to bring a 
certificate of Baptism, Confirmation and of moral 
character from their pastor, also a recommenda- 
tion from their present Rev. Confessor, together 
with a certificate of health from a physician. 

A triple period of probation and preparation 
precedes the admission to membership in the Con- 
gregation. The first period, called the Postulate, 
usually lasts from six months to one year. Of 
this time, the first months are generally spent in 




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OF ST. FRANCIS 213 

the novitiate, in order to acquire some knowledge 
of the duties of the religious life, then some 
months are spent in the hospital, where the postu- 
lants help in the care of the sick and in other 
hospital work. The Novitiate lasts two years, 
which time is wholly spent in the Provincial 
Mother-house, where the novices are well educated 
for the religious life, and instructed in the various 
duties of the Congregation. After completing the 
Novitiate, the Sisters, for five years, profess the 
simple vows of Poverty, Chastity and Obedience, 
each time for the term of one year. After the ex- 
piration of this time, if they have been approved 
of, they are permitted to consecrate themselves to 
God by perpetual vows. 

The Congregation requires no dowry from those 
admitted but only a modest outfit of clothing and 
whatever little money they may have at their dis- 
posal. Those candidates who are not able to fur- 
nish the above may simply bring what clothing, 
etc., they may have. Of course they will defray 
the expenses of their journey to the convent. A 
want of means never proves an obstacle to ad- 
mission. 

In 1896 the Novitiate of the Congregation was 
removed to Hartwell, Cincinnati, Ohio, where the 
Congregation possesses a large Convent, Chapel 
and grounds, the center of activity of the Prov- 
ince in America. 

Since the year of their foundation in the United 
States, the Sisters of the Poor of St. Francis have 
established hospitals in the following cities: St. 
Mary's, Cincinnati, 1858; Covington, Ky., 1860; St. 
Francis, Columbus, O., 1862; Hoboken, N. J., 1863; 
Jersey City, N. J., 1864; Brooklyn, N. Y., 1864; St. 
Francis, Fifth Street, New York City, 1865; Quin- 



214 URSULINES IN KENTUCKY 

cy, 111., 1866; Newark, N. J., 1867; Dayton, 0., 
1878; St. Joseph's, New York City, 1882; Kansas 
City, Kans., 1887; St. Francis, Fairmount, Cincin- 
nati, 0., 1888; St. Anthony's, Columbus, O., 1891; 
St. Francis, One Hundred Forty-second Street, 
New York City, 1906. 



THE URSULINES IN KENTUCKY* 

1858 

On November 25, 1535, at Brecia, Italy, the Ur- 
suline Order was formally and canonically in- 
augurated by St. Angela Merici, the "Apostle of 
Female Higher Education," and placed under the 
patronage of St. Ursula, the martyred princess of 
Brittany. In 1544 the Rules and Constitutions 
were approved by the reigning pontiff, Pope Paul 
III. Thus through the apostolate of Christian Ed- 
ucation the Ursuline Order has, for more than 
four hundred years, presented to a demoralized 
society, living and forcible arguments of an active 
and holy life, training woman to be a bulwark 
against the fierce storms of unbelief and anti- 
Christian socialism. 

The Ursuline Order spread rapidly, foundations 
being made in all the countries of Europe and 
many in America. 

In the year 1858, at the earnest solicitation of 
the Rt. Rev. Martin J. Spaulding, Bishop of Louis- 
ville, an Ursuline foundation from Straubing, Ba- 
varia, was made in his episcopal city by Mother 
de Sales and two other Sisters. St. Martin's school 

*Especially prepared by the Ursuline Sisters, Convent of the 
Immaculate Conception, 806 East Chestnut Street, Louisville, Kentucky. 



URSULINES IN KENTUCKY 215 



was their first parochiajkcharge, employing two 
teachers, today fourteen. The same year a novi- 
tiate was opened and God sent worthy subjects 
glad to put the convent door between themselves 
and the alluring world, and the foundation pros- 
pered until the Community numbers nearly three 
hundred professed Sisters and nearly fifty novices. 

One year later the Academy of the Immaculate 
Conception opened her portals. It was soon after 
duly chartered by the Kentucky legislature, and in 
1866 Miss Anna Cotter received the honors of 
graduation. Since then a long train of laurel- 
crowned, cultured and God-fearing women have 
crossed the threshold and have gone forth to as- 
sume the duties awaiting them beyond; many, 
too, remained, binding themselves by vow to the 
God-appointed work of Christian education. 

As in the city of Louisville churches multiplied, 
demands for teachers came, until at this writing, 
the Ursulines conduct eighteen parochial schools 
in the city of Louisville with an enrollment of 
more than six thousand pupils. In Kentucky, out- 
side of Louisville, fourteen schools, and St. Jo- 
seph's Orphan Home with its near two hundred 
homeless little ones. Besides these schools, the 
Community has schools in Evansville and Madi- 
son, Indiana, and in Cumberland, Maryland. 

In 1874 the mother-house at Louisville sent a 
band of five Ursulines to the Green River Hills of 
Southwestern Kentucky, in response to an appeal 
from the Rev. Paul Joseph Volk, pastor of St. Al- 
phonsus Church, in Daviess County. Here, in for- 
est primeval, amid direst poverty, they planted 
the mustard seed of the Gospel, which, within two 
decades developed and flourished into the famous 
literary and benevolent institution known through- 
out the South as Mt. St. Joseph's Academy. 



216 URSULINES IN KENTUCKY 

The last fifteen years especially have been an 
era of gigantic growth for Mt. St. Joseph's, during 
which time, in addition to a thorough literary 
course, a business course, and a normal school for 
teachers have been opened. In 1905, a handsome 
structure, known as the "new Academy," was 
erected north of old St. Joseph's. In every detail 
of building and equipment the "new Academy" 
has been made attractive, comfortable and sani- 
tary by the most superior modern improvements. 
An Alumnae Association was organized in June, 
1905, on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniver- 
sary of the State incorporation of the institution. 

Owing to the constant growth of the Community 
and the great number of day pupils, the boarding 
school of the Immaculate Conception was re- 
moved to a beautiful villa of some forty acres, in 
the suburbs of the city, where it has since been 
known as the Academy of the Sacred Heart, and, 
where for nearly half a century, the Sisters have 
labored in building up the spiritual, moral and 
intellectual characters of the young womanhood 
of Kentucky and the surrounding States. The su- 
perb structure of today, with its splendid halls, 
well equipped laboratory, numerous departments, 
and with a complete course of instruction in reli- 
gion, in the arts and the sciences, in literature and 
in the languages, is but the natural outgrowth of 
the academy of 1876. What a transformation 
there has been been! But there are some things 
which have not changed and these are the active 
faith, the salutary discipline, the solid instructions 
in morality and religion, the cherished ideals of 
Christian womanhood which the Sacred Heart 
placed as its foundation-stones. ; These have vital- 
ized it into being, and made it what it is today, 



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URSULINES IN KENTUCKY 217 

one of the brightest ornaments in the galaxy of 
higher educational institutions in the South. An 
institution that has ever labored to make woman 
a great helpful, moral force in society by training 
her mind and her heart to true Christian prin- 
ciples. 

The Alumnae Association of Immaculate Con- 
ception Academy was organized June 20, 1905. 

Of the "Angeline," the school journal, the Rev. 
Editor of the Record says: "Of all the academic 
publications of recent date, the Angeline straight- 
way takes the lead, not only in its superb make- 
up, but also in its diversified, well- written, orig- 
inal contents. It certainly reflects honor and does 
credit to one of Louisville's foremost educational 
institutions, conducted by the Ursulines, who are 
everywhere in the Catholic world, teachers to the 
manor born." 

The mission of the Ursuline Nun being by vow 
the instruction of youth, the present Superioress, 
Mother Victoria Rerneen, is leaving nothing un- 
done to keep abreast of the time and to maintain 
a high standard of excellence in all the Ursuline 
Schools. At present there are members of the 
Community attending the Catholic University, 
Washington, D. C, and the Conservatory of Mu- 
sic, Cincinnati, Ohio. 



218 SISTERS OF CHARITY 



SISTERS OF CHARITY OF NEW 
JERSEY * 

1859 

The New Jersey branch of the Sisters of Char- 
ity emanated directly from the Mother-House in 
New York. 

With the growing needs of the Church in the 
United States and the desire of the Sisters to ex- 
tend as far as practicable the work of saving souls, 
missions had been opened across the Hudson in 
the cities of Paterson and Newark. An orphan 
asylum had been established in the city of New- 
ark and a small school for the children of the 
parish of St. Patrick. The Newark mission, in 
charge of Sister Phillipine had among its 
earnest workers the gentle Sister Mary Xavier 
Mehegan. At the Paterson mission was sta- 
tioned Sister Mary Catherine Nevin. These 
two women destined by Divine Providence 
to play so important a part in the develop- 
ment of the Church in New Jersey had passed 
nearly twelve years of their religious life in the 
New York Community when the call came 
to leave all and begin a new career in Jersey's 
promising fields. 

In 1858 the See of Newark was created with the 
Rt. Rev. James Roosevelt Bayley, D. D., as its first 
bishop. Filled with the zeal of his saintly aunt, 
Mother Elizabeth Seton, and eager to establish a 
permanent mother-house of his own in the New- 
ark diocese, Bishop Bayley made overtures at once 

*Especially prepared by the Sisters pf Charity, Convent of St. 
Elizabeth, Convent Station, New Jersey. 



OF NEW JERSEY 219 

to open a diocesan community of the Sisters of 
Charity distinct from the New York house, and in- 
timately associated with him' in the labors of the 
new foundation in New Jersey. The proposal to 
create a new mother-house met with little en- 
couragement at the time, for the number of Sis- 
ters then at the New York center was barely suf- 
ficient to supply the demands of the home mis- 
sions, and the New York Province felt it could but 
ill afford to give up even one of its Sisters to form 
the nucleus of the Newark Community. Bishop 
Bayley, however, undeterred by objections, see- 
ing the growing necessity for nearer communica- 
tion with his newly created See, determined to 
apply elsewhere for novitiate preparation for his 
diocesan band. Applying at the mother-house in 
New York, then governed by the wise and pru- 
dent Mother Angela Hughes, to permit him to 
have but one or two of the Sisters then stationed 
at the Newark mission, provided they themselves 
would be willing to sever all connection with New 
York and assume the arduous labors of the new 
foundation in the sister state. 

Bishop Bayley's far-seeing wisdom selected as 
the person of his choice to become the head of 
the young Community the modest and retiring 
Sister Mary Xavier, then a private Sister at the 
Newark mission, as has been already stated. 
After some deliberation over the matter, an op- 
tion was given the Sisters of the Newark mission 
to consider the plan of separation for five years, 
at the end of which time they could return to New 
York, or remain in Newark as the first members 
of the new Community. After the expiration of 
the time, only two of the number then engaged in 
the New Jersey missions, Sister Mary Xavier Me- 



220 SISTERS OF CHARITY 

hegan and Sister Mary Catherine Nevin, agreed 
to enter the new field permanently, and sever all 
ties with the New York mother-house. 

The self-sacrificing spirit and religious zeal 
which had characterized the early years of Sister 
Xavier and Sister Mary Catherine eminently fitted 
them for the laborious work which they now un- 
dertook, and it is not too much to say that the 
splendid results of the Sisters' toils in New Jersey 
are directly traceable to these two valiant women 
who gave no thought to self at any time, who 
nobly gave God their lives of fruitful zeal to pro- 
mote His interests among souls and to spread the 
light of Christian education. 

Subjects for the young community were already 
pledged for entrance into the new foundation, but 
difficulties arose which had to be met before for- 
mally establishing a novitiate at the Newark mis- 
sion. The Newark mission house was all too small 
for its school, orphanage, and temporary hospital 
to admit of further encroachments in the form of 
a novitiate; besides, the tumult of the city and its 
other distractions were ill adapted to promote 
the quiet and retirement so necessary for reli- 
gious thought. Bishop Bayley, therefore, found it 
necessary, once he had secured the consent of the 
two founders for his new work, to cast about for a 
suitable novitiate for the training of the postulants 
who offered themselves for the work. He ap- 
proached the New York house, Emmitsburg, and 
finally Cincinnati (an offshoot also of the Emmits- 
burg foundation) , for hospitality for the young re- 
cruits of his New Jersey community. In the last 
named religious and loving sisterhood, Mount St. 
Joseph's, Ohio, the little band of five postulants 
found a warm and hospitable reception, and 



OF NEW JERSEY 221 

thither, accompanied by the Rector of St. Pat- 
rick's, Newark, Father Bernard McQuaid, they 
journeyed in 1858 to begin their work of apostolic 
zeal as a preparation for their missionary labors 
in New Jersey. 

At the expiration of ten months they returned 
to Newark, the superiors of the Cincinnati house 
having deemed them sufficiently well equipped 
by reason of their ardent spirit and their eager 
devotion to the new work before them, no less 
than their willingness to suffer hardships if need 
be, to promote the success of the young founda- 
tion. They arrived at Newark on September 29, 
1859, the feast of Saint Michael, and formally 
opened, with the beloved Sister Mary Xavier as 
Mother, and Sister Mary Catherine as Assistant, 
the New Jersey Community. From this date also 
all connection with the New York house was 
severed. 

Other postulants soon came to the new estab- 
lishment, St. Mary's, Newark, and within less than 
one year it was found that the cramped quarters 
at Bleecher Street were wholly inadequate to pro- 
vide for the growing needs of the community. 

About this time, Bishop Bayley, who had pre- 
viously purchased the old Chegary mansion at 
Madison, New Jersey and fitted it up as a dioce- 
san seminary and college for young men, naming 
it Seton Hall after his venerable aunt, Mother 
Seton, found it necessary to seek a site for his 
seminarians nearer the cathedral city of Newark. 
A beautiful piece of property at South Orange, 
New Jersey was eventually decided upon for Se- 
ton Hall, and Bishop Bayley then offered to 
Mother Xavier an option on the Chegary mansion 
as the mother-house for her young community. 



222 SISTERS OF CHARITY 

No more ideal spot, no more healthful location 
could have been selected by the far-seeing 
Mother, and she eagerly acquiesced in the Bishop's 
proposal. The secluded shelter of the Chegary 
mansion, its opportunities for retirement and 
quiet, and the possibilities for future purchases of 
ground in the vicinity easily induced Mother 
Xavier to assume a burden of debt which at that 
time seemed almost hazardous. However, the 
purchase price of twenty-five thousand dollars was 
provided for through the aid of noble benefactors 
among the friends of the Sisters, and the transac- 
tion was duly closed between the Bishop and the 
new community. 

On July 2, 1860, accordingly, the Sisters, accom- 
panied by Mother Mary Xavier, left the Newark 
house and proceeded to the new mother-house at 
Madison. I 

When a name for the new foundation was 
spoken of Bishop Bayley suggested that the name 
Seton Hall be retained, but Mother Xavier, fore- 
seeing the confusion that must inevitably arise 
from two institutions bearing the same name, 
deemed it well to compromise with the good Bish- 
op and give the name St. Elizabeth to the com- 
munity house. In this way, both the saintly 
Mother Seton and the feast of the community 
foundation at Madison, the Visitation of Our Lady 
to St. Elizabeth, would be honored. This name 
was accordingly given to the new establishment. 

As soon as practicable, it was arranged to open 
a boarding school for young ladies at the Madi- 
son house and thus provide needful funds for car- 
rying on the work of the Sisters and to support 
the rapidly increasing novitiate numbers. Pupils 
were soon forthcoming, and it was not long before 



OF NEW JERSEY 223 

St. Elizabeth's became the center of educational 
life and activity in New Jersey, while it continued 
to foster the work of religious zeal and piety 
through the devotion of the young Sisters to their 
sacred calling. Hardship and privation and want 
oftentimes marked their struggles for the up- 
building, but nothing daunted, they pressed on, 
and in a short time began to realize the blessed 
hundredfold in a material no less than in a spir- 
itual sense. 

Passing rapidly over* the story of those first 
years of labor and achievement, for the seed soon 
ripened into fruit, and the glory of the results 
repaid the efforts of those who labored in the 
first rude days of the foundation; without pausing 
to consider losses by death and other trying or- 
deals incidental to the establishment of a new 
community, the decades that followed 1860 wit- 
nessed many gains and triumphs. From the one 
small mother foundation that marked the year 
1860, succeeding years soon totalled over eighty 
mission houses throughout the state of New Jer- 
sey, and even beyond the state limits into Con- 
necticut and Massachusetts, with more than forty- 
five thousand children in attendance at the pa- 
rochial schools, until now, at the close of the 
fifty-second year of its foundation, the New Jer- 
sey Sisters of Charity number more than twelve 
hundred members, their active works of charity 
extending over several orphanages, homes for the 
incurable, hospitals, foundling asylums, day nur- 
series, and several academies affiliated with the 
grand Academy and College at Convent Station. 

As mentioned above, pastors from other States 
soon sought the services of the Jersey Sisters, and, 
as a consequence, many missions in these States, 



224 SISTERS OF CHARITY 

with more than one hundred Sisters in active 
work in the schools, demand the attention of the 
New Jersey mother-house. The first out-state 
foundation was made in 1889, at St. Joseph's Par- 
ish, Boston, Mass. 

In keeping with the special work of charity for 
which the Sisters of St. Vincent de Paul are 
everywhere adapted, yet not necessarily called to 
the exclusion of other more urgent works of zeal 
in the fields of educational activity, the manage- 
ment of hospitals for the sick and homes for the 
indigent has been the careful consideration of the 
noble founders of the New Jersey community. St. 
Joseph hospital, opened at Paterson in 1867, there- 
fore, was almost the first of the great works of 
charity which engaged the attention of Mother 
Mary Xavier. In the years that have followed, 
other hospitals have found in her a wise guide 
and helpful aid, while the care of the orphan, one 
of the dearest interests of St. Vincent de Paul, a 
heritage which his daughters are proud to claim, 
is not neglected by these daughters in New Jersey. 
St. Mary's, the large diocesan orphanage situated 
on a beautiful site at South Orange, close to the 
seminary and college for boys, was placed in 
charge of the Sisters in 1861. Other orphanages 
were opened in Paterson, Jersey City and Ho- 
boken. 

The exclusion of the uncurably sick from the 
general hospitals as undesirable patients, or at 
least as patients who prevent in a measure, the 
admission of sick who could be permanently 
cured if hospital relief could be open to them, 
made the venerable Mother Xavier realize the ne- 
cessity of providing a home for the destitute 
whose hope of cure was slight, yet who demanded 



OF NEW JERSEY 225 

care and attention. Accordingly, a magnificent 
site at Ridgewood, N. J., was purchased and the 
House of Divine Providence, as it was called, was 
formally opened in 1891. Here the preference is 
always given to the sick who y.ave been pro- 
nounced uncurable, and who find much relief in 
the pine groves which surround the Providence 
Home. In addition to this great charity, the usual 
work of caring for the foundlings is not neglected, 
as the Infant hospital at Montclair, founded in 
1899, testifies. As a supplement to the work of 
the foundling hospital, two day nurseries, one at 
Orange, the other at Waterbury, Conn., have been 
established. In 1885, a home for old ladies was 
opened in Jersey City. 

The rapid growth of the mother-house build- 
ings toward the hilltop, and the purchase of 
lands near the railway, called for the establish- 
ment of a separate station on the Convent 
grounds, and as soon as the* new buildings now 
known as Mother-house were projected, the Lack- 
awanna railroad opened the station and called 
it "Convent" This is located midway between 
Madison and Morristown; the freque icy of trains 
makes the Convent readily accessible from all 
nearby cities, and greatly improves the advantages 
of the academy and college of St. Elizabeth. 

Keeping pace with the educational demands of 
the time and realizing the necessity of providing 
Catholic young women with opportunities for pur- 
suing their higher courses of study where faith 
would not be endangered because of false philoso- 
phy, Mother Mary Xavier opened the collegiate 
department of study, thus forming the nucleus 
of the Catholic College system which has de- 
veloped with marvellous rapidity since the foun- 
dation of the College of St. Elizabeth in 1899. 

15 



226 SISTERS OF CHARITY 

In every possible field of activity, in every 
sphere of charity and zeal, the Sisters of Charity 
of New Jersey have followed up the traditions of 
their predecessors in Maryland, in New York, in 
Cincinnati, and in Halifax. As branches of the 
parent trunk, these all imbibe the spirit of their 
great founder, the saintly Vincent de Paul, and 
have borne into the New World the zeal and self- 
sacrificing devotion to duty in its manifold forms 
that characterized the noble Madame Le Gras and 
the first Daughters of Charity. 

The dress of the New Jersey Sisters of Charity 
conforms in the main with that of the New York, 
Cincinnati and Halifax members of the Order, 
save that the headdress of the Jersey members is 
white, with a black veil. Bishop Bayley objected 
to the rigid black cap of the other Sisters, and 
as soon as possible after the Newark foundation, 
had the Sisters adopt a new headdress. The cap 
has a fluted border, with a white linen bow at the 
neck. The street dress is a veil over this head- 
dress, instead of the black crepe bonnets of the 
first years. 



THE SISTERS OF THE HOLY; 
CHILD JESUS* 

1862 

The Feast of St. Ignatius, 1862, saw the em- 
barkation of a small band of religious at the port 
of Liverpool. Their Mother General gave them 
her blessing and bade them Godspeed with a great 

*Furnished by the Sisters of the Holy Child Jesus, Sharon Hill, 

Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Especially prepared for them by R. D. 

Weston, in commemoration of the Golden Jubilee of the Society in 
America (1862-1912). 



SISTERS OF THE HOLY CHILD 227 

love, for were they not fulfilling one of the dear- 
est wishes of her heart — a foundation in her own 
beloved country? 

Many years before, Cornelia Connelly, a Phila- 
delphia lady, had found and embraced Catholic 
truth, and had desired to dedicate herself to God 
in the solitude of Mount Carmel. The Sovereign 
Pontiff, Gregory XVI., however, had bidden her 
to devote her life to the task of religious educa- 
tion. The needs of America were well known to 
her, but Cardinal Wiseman was in Rome at that 
time pleading for England's needs, and at the 
bidding of the Holy Father she founded the So- 
ciety of the Holy Child Jesus, under the protec- 
tion of the cardinal, in 1846. 

In her mind the thought of a home for her So- 
ciety in America was only postponed, never aban- 
doned. The years passed and many places had 
been considered, Texas, New Orleans, and Phila- 
delphia among others, when at length an Ameri- 
can lady, Louise Caton, the Duchess of Leeds, a 
granddaughter of Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, 
enabled her to realize her hopes and to send some 
of her Sisters to America. 

The duchess gave a property situated in Towan- 
da, Bradford County, Pennsylvania, on which to 
make the foundation, and July 31, 1862, saw a 
small colony set sail. An Atlantic voyage was a 
greater venture in those days, and the Mother 
General was happy to find Bishop Wood, of Phil- 
adelphia, on board with several other bishops and 
priests. Among these, the Rev. Dr. Henry A. 
Brann, a newly ordained priest from the Ameri- 
can College, was returning to New York, and the 
current year (1912) sees the Right Rev. Mgr. 
Brann, D. D., happily preserved to keep his 
Golden Jubilee. 



228 SISTERS OF THE HOLY CHILD 

To the bishop's care, then, Madame Connelly 
committed her Sisters, and he ever showed them 
kindness and consideration. On reaching Phila- 
delphia, he consigned them to the keeping of the 
Sisters of St. Joseph, who lived near the Cathe- 
dral, and of tiieir hearty hospitality the little band 
ever preserved an affectionate and grateful re- 
membrance, ^hese pioneers used to tell how, on 
their first evening, while the bishop was at dinner, 
the band in welcome played "Home, Sweet Home." 
Quickly his kind heart thought of the newly ar- 
rived Sisters, and he sent a message requesting 
another tune, lest that one stir memories of the 
home they had so recently left. It was on St. 
Clare's day, August 12, 1862, that the small party 
of five nuns and two postulants landed in Ameri- 
ca, and in commemoration of this event, and of its 
Golden Jubilee, these lines are written. 

The bishop, as well as Father Carter, his vicar 
general, who had at once become their staunch 
friend, discouraged their going to Towanda, 
which, at that date, seemed almost out of the 
world; but thither they had been sent, and they 
determined to first make the effort to carry out 
the work which obedience had blessed for them. 
So to Towanda they went and opened a boarding 
school early in September, in spite of the fact 
that the war cloud was over our land. 

Their new home, as one of them described it, 
was "a small wooden building falling to decay," 
but though obstacles and poverty abounded, they 
cheerfully accepted difficulties, esteeming it a 
privilege to labor for the souls of children for the 
sake of the Holy Child Jesus. Early in 1863, Fa- 
ther Garter visited them. Their courage was un- 
abated, but strangers, and in war time they found 




MOTHER CORNELIA CONNELLY 
Foundress of the Sisters of the Holy Child Jesus 



SISTERS OF THE HOLY CHILD 229 

the problem of existence an anxious one, and re- 
luctantly admitted that the times and the isolation 
of that section rendered the foundation impos- 
sible. They moved, therefore, to Philadelphia, un- 
dertaking the charge of the parochial school of the 
Assumption, at the same time carrying on a pri- 
vate school attached to the Convent, in Spring 
Garden Street. Their progress the next year was 
assured by the foundation of the convent at Sha- 
ron Hill. The Jackson School, a Quaker Academy, 
about seven miles from Philadelphia, just off the 
historic Darby Road, was purchased by Father 
Carter. For the work of Catholic education he 
gave this to the Sisters, and here the Novitiate of 
the Order was opened on the feast of Our Lady of 
Mt. Carmel, 1864. For this reason the Rose of 
Sharon and the Flower of Carmel have been al- 
ways lovingly honored by the closing of the an- 
nual retreat. By this time other Sisters from Eng- 
land had joined them and they enlarged the scope 
of their labors. 

The first days at Sharon were memorable ones 
for all. Their early struggles were over, it is true, 
their work secure, but they were face to face with 
poverty, and many privations had still to be en- 
dured. And these were met with the cheerful sim- 
plicity engendered by imitation of the Holy Child 
Jesus at Nazareth. The quaint Quaker building, 
with its peaceful aloofness, seemed to wield an at- 
tractive influence upon their children who ever re- 
main devotedly attached to their Alma Mater. 
The atmosphere seemed in every way suited to 
the work undertaken, and the school soon became 
known, not alone for the thoroughness of the edu- 
cation imparted, but for the stamp of refinement 
and culture left upon its pupils, and this in its 



230 SISTERS OF THE HOLY CHILD 

measure may be claimed as a special character- 
istic of the work of the Society wherever its 
schools have been established. A glance at the 
extension of its labors in the ensuing years may 
prove not uninteresting. 

In 1868, St. Leonard's House, Thirty-ninth and 
Chestnut Streets, Philadelphia, was opened, and 
the Sisters are engaged in directing an Academy 
of large attendance, and well established reputa- 
tion and in teaching, besides, the schools of two 
neighboring parishes. Another Philadelphia foun- 
dation was made at St. Edward's, in 1889, where 
a large parochial school is under the Sisters' care. 

Sharon has always had a large percentage of 
New Yorkers, and this caused old pupils and 
friends to desire a convent in New York. This 
became possible in 1904, when Mrs. Charles 
Wheaton gave, in memory of Mother Mary Wal- 
burga, a fine property in West One Hundred For- 
ty-first Street; and very happy were the Sisters 
to discover in the gable of their new home a star- 
shaped window, and on the grounds a stable, later 
remodeled for a school, which the Sisters prompt- 
ly interpreted as a sign that the Holy Child would 
be propitious to them in New York. Their work 
has outgrown the old building and a new one at 
One Hundred Fortieth Street and Riverside Drive 
will mark the Jubilee Year. 

And the Holy Child has found Himself a home 
on the Rockies since 1884, thus linking the East 
with the West. In Cheyenne, Wyoming, the old 
traditions and spirit flourish in this newer region. 

In Chicago, where they have been but four 
years, a school was opened in modest quarters in 
St. Veronica's parish. They have now a convent 
in Rogers Park, close to Loyola University, and 




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SISTERS OF THE HOLY CHILD 231 

lately they have made a beginning in Massachu- 
setts, having been invited to teach the parochial 
school in Melrose, near Boston, where they are 
earnestly laboring in the cause of Catholic edu- 
cation. 

And, as if to crown their Golden Jubilee, comes 
a munificent gift from Mrs. Thomas F. Ryan, who, 
in addition to her benefactions to the Church, has 
bestowed on the Society a fine estate at Suffern, 
New York, where a boarding and day school will 
be opened at the beginning of the coming scholas- 
tic year. A beautiful gold monstrance, set with 
personal gifts of their own jewelry from the Sha- 
ron Alumnae, is their memorial of the happy event. 

The history of the Society of the Holy Child 
Jesus during the half century past has been one 
of brave endeavor to uphold in themselves and 
impart to their children those high standards of 
spirituality embodied in their motto, "Actions, 
not Words." They owe much of their influence to 
the moulding and guidance of their first Superior, 
Mother Mary Xavier, who governed them till 1876, 
and to Mother Mary Walburga, who succeeded 
her as Provincial, and faithfully carried on her 
work. Mother Mary Walburga came from Eng- 
land in 1863. As Superior and Novice Mistress at 
Sharon and Provincial till her death in 1903, she 
was a mother indeed to both Sisters and children. 
Pages might be written of her strong, beautiful 
and far-reaching influence. "Our Mother never 
entered our class room without lifting up our 
hearts to God," says one who for many years en- 
joyed her motherly love and solicitude. No one 
who ever came in contact with her failed to feel 
the inspiration of her presence and the warm hu- 
man sense of understanding and sympathy for 
each individual. And with this loving testimony 



232 SISTERS OF CHARITY OF 

our record may close; for with such traditions 
permeating and vivifying their Society, future 
years must prove abundantly fruitful for good in 
the lives of their children. 



SISTERS OF ST. MARY* 

1863 

The Institute of the Sisters of St. Mary, in the 
Diocese of Buffalo, New York, was founded in 
1819; the European mother-house of the congre- 
gation is at No. 24 Rue de President, Namur, Bel- 
gium. 

In the year 1863 members of this congregation 
came to the United States, their first house was 
established in Lockport, N. Y., where the Ameri- 
can novitiate and the training school for the Sis- 
ters are now located. 



*From the Catholic Directory, 1912. 



SISTERS OF CHARITY OF THE 
INCARNATE WORD* 

1866 

The Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of 
the Incarnate Word, in its proper sense, dates 
from the year 1866, but in the prophetic views of 
the venerated Jeanne Chezard de Matel, who 
founded the cloistered Order of the Incarnate 



*From corrected references furnished by the Sisters of Charity 
of tM Incarnate Word, Alamo Heights, San Antonio, Texas. 



THE INCARNATE WORD 233 

Word and the Blessed Sacrament in 1633, this 
branch already existed. 

The Incarnate Word wished, however, to give 
the glory of the direct establishment to the Ven- 
erable Reverend Mother Angelique of the Incar- 
nation, who, in concert with the Reverend Abbe 
Galtier, restored the Monastery of Lyons, France, 
in 1832. 

To these two saintly souls the Congregation 
owes its formation, at the request of Right Rev- 
erend C. M. Dubuis, Bishop of Galveston, Texas, 
who is regarded as its founder. 

The cradle of this Congregation then, was in 
Lyons, France, in the Monastery of the Incarnate 
Word. 

In 1866 Bishop Dubuis went to France in search 
of religious who would devote themselves to the 
alleviation of physical and moral misery in his 
vast diocese, which then comprised the entire 
state of Texas. His efforts, in France, seemed un- 
successful, all his hopes about to be frustrated 
when Reverend Mother Angelique accepted the 
mission and became the Superior of the Congre- 
gation on which she bestowed a title, at once in- 
dicative of the motives which created it and the 
spirit which actuates its members, namely, "Char- 
ity," "love of the Incarnate Word." 

In response to the good Bishop's petition, Rev. 
Mother Angelique, with the permission of Car- 
dinal de Bonald, Archbishop of Lyons, immedi- 
ately admitted into her monastery the subjects 
presented by Bishop Dubuis, these subjects were 
to form the nucleus of the new Congregation, 
which was henceforth to be known as the "Con- 
gregation of the Sisters of the Incarnate Word." 

The Sisters embarked for Texas soon after and 



234 SISTERS OF CHARITY 

arrived in Galveston the latter part of 1866; in 
1867 they were joined by more Sisters from 
France. The arrival of these Sisters opened for 
the new Congregation, a new era. 

Galveston was not the only city of the "Lone 
Star State" to welcome the humble daughters of 
the Incarnate Word; on March 31, 1869, the Bish- 
op sent a colony of the Sisters to San Antonio, 
that there they might establish a foundation. 

In 1870, the Community of San Antonio was 
created an independent center, by its founder, 
Bishop Dubuis. The Congregation is devoted to 
the cause of education in boarding and day 
schools and to the care of the orphan, the sick 
and the aged. 

Miraculous has been its progress in these years; 
candidates from different countries in Europe, 
from the United States and from Mexico are re- 
ceived yearly, but the number is quite insufficient 
to cope with the demands made for the Sisters' 
services. 

Texas being the home of the Congregation the 
majority of its establishments are in that State 
but it also possesses houses in other states and 
in the Republic of Mexico. 

In 1897 the Sisters purchased a beautiful tract 
of land comprising 283 acres, at the head of the 
San Antonio River, on River Avenue, near Alamo 
Heights, three and a half miles from the city of 
San Antonio. The Novitiate was removed here 
the same year; in 1900 the convent was completed 
and became the mother-house. It is now the Gen- 
eralate of the Congregation. 

In September, 1900, the Academy of the In- 
carnate Word — connected with the mother-house 
— admitted its first pupils. The patronage of the 




A SISTER OF CHARITY OF THE INCARNATE WORD 
Convent of the Incarnate Word, Alamo Heights, San Antonio, Texas 



FRANCISCAN SISTERS 235 

Academy increasing rapidly, it soon became nec- 
essary to erect a large addition to the building. 
This educational Institution has been chartered 
by the State as a college and is empowered to 
confer degrees. In September, 1912, St. Joseph's 
College and Academy in San Angelo, Texas, was 
opened by the Sisters of this Congregation. 



FRANCISCAN SISTERS, ORDER OF, 
MT. CARMEL* 

1866 

The Community of Franciscans at Alverno 
dates back to the year 1866. Its first would-be 
members, five in number, having resolved to de- 
vote their lives to the cause of Catholic educa- 
tion, placed themselves under the direction of 
Rev. Joseph Fessler, then pastor of the little con- 
gregation at Clarks Mills, Wis. A small frame 
building still standing in this village was the 
cradle, so to speak, of the present large and flour- 
ishing community. 

In 1867 Father Fessler was called to labor in a 
wider sphere, the pastorate of St. Boniface, at 
Manitowoc, Wis., and thither his spiritual daugh- 
ters resolved to follow. Accordingly they re- 
moved to Manitowoc, where a small dwelling was 
rented. Three of their number, however, wishing 
to prepare themselves more thoroughly for their 
future duties, as teachers, went to the Notre Dame 
Convent at Milwaukee to complete their course 
of studies, and at the same time to acquire the 

*Especially prepared by the Franciscan Sisters, Holy Family Con- 
vent, Alverno, Wisconsin. 



236 FRANCISCAN SISTERS OF THE 

necessary fundamental training in religious life. 
They were accordingly placed by good Mother 
Caroline among the postulants. Here they re- 
mained about a year, after which they were hon- 
orably dismissed and joyfully hastened to their 
humble little home to begin the work which they 
felt that Divine Providence had assigned to them. 
Meanwhile their companions had taken charge of 
the little school in St. Ann's congregation near 
Clarks Mills. 

On November 9, 1869, all five received the habit 
of the Third Order of St. Francis at the hands 
of Father Fessler, who had previously obtained 
for the new foundation the expressed approbation 
of the Most Rev. Archbishop of Milwaukee, John 
M. Henni, D. D. ? as also that of the Capuchin 
Provincial, Very Rev. Francis Haas. The names 
of the newly received were: Rosa Vahl, Sr. M. 
Odelia; Josepha Thoening, Sr. M. Colletta; Mary 
Graff, Sr. M. Hyacinth; Sophie Fessler (Father 
Fessler's sister), Sr. M. Seraphica, and Theresa 
Graemlich, Sr. M. Gabriel. Sr. Odelia was almost 
immediately chosen to direct the little community. 

They received their first postulant the next year, 
in the person of Mary Doyle, afterwards Sr. M. 
Patricia, and on the ninth of November four of 
their number made their profession. The first 
outside mission school was also taken charge of 
this year (1870). 

The small frame building which was at first 
provided for the Sisters at Manitowoc soon failed 
to furnish sufficient accommodations for the rap- 
idly growing community. Besides, it was located 
in the city, and one of the cherished hopes of the 
founders was to secure a home removed from the 
noise and bustle of the busy town. One day in 



ORDER OF MT. CARMEL 237 

the autumn of 1871 Mother Odelia had occasion 
to visit the "Settlement" at St. Nazianz, about 
eighteen miles southwest from Manitowoc. Her 
route lay past the present site of the convent, and 
as her eyes rested on the beautiful sheet of silver 
waters, with the wood-crowned eminence on its 
western shore, the thought at once presented it- 
self : "What an ideal site for our new home." On 
her return she spoke of the matter to Father Jo- 
seph Fessler, who visited the place a few days 
later. Sharing her views as to its singular fitness 
for the purpose, he at once took steps towards 
its purchase. The bargain was soon concluded 
and in the spring of 1873, the erection of the first 
brick structure was begun; the following year saw 
its completion. 

In the year of 1875 the community received a 
considerable augmentation. Twenty-five Fran- 
cisan Sisters from the diocese of Hildesheim, Ger- 
many, being obliged, in consequence of the Kul- 
tur-Kampf, either to return to their homes or 
emigrate to America, sought and found a home 
with their American Sisters at Alverno. The first 
seventeen Sisters of this province came over in 
1875, the other eight the next year. The two com- 
munities were united in 1877. 

In the Spring of 1880, after thirteen years of in- 
defatigable labor in behalf of the community, 
Father Fessler was called to take charge of the 
congregation at Fond du Lac, Wis. He was suc- 
ceeded by his brother, Rev. George Fessler, a 
zealous and learned priest, whose interest in the 
welfare of the community did much to foster its 
progress, both temporarily and spiritually. At his 
suggestion, a boarding school for girls was opened 
in the Autumn of 1880. It was continued with 



238 FRANCISCAN SISTERS 

gratifying success until 1892, when the growing 
demand for teachers to supply the parochial 
schools rendered it necessary to devote all the 
talent of the community to this work. 

More than fifty parochial schools, with a total 
enrollment of nearly ten thousand pupils, are now 
in charge of the community. They are variously 
located in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio and Ne- 
braska. 

The first hospital conducted by the Sisters was 
the old "St. Mary's" in Manitowoc. It occupied 
the original convent building; but it was discon- 
tinued after a few years, as the house was un- 
suited to the purpose in point of size and neces- 
sary equipment. Two hospitals are at present in 
charge of the Sisters; Holy Family hospital at 
Manitowoc, and the Good Samaritan hospital at 
Zanesville, Ohio. The former was opened Sep- 
tember 28, 1899, and the latter June 27, 1902. An- 
other institution in charge of this community is 
a Home for the Aged located at West Point, Ne- 
braska, and founded in 1906. 

The growth of the community has been steady 
and rapid. Although but two of the original 
members (Mother Gabriel and Sister Colletta) 
now survive, the community numbers nearly five 
hundred members, with Mother M. Euphrosine the 
present Superior. 







A SISTER OF ST. FRANCIS 
Of the Community of Mt. St. Clare, Clinton, Iowa 



SISTERS OF ST. FRANCIS 239 



SISTERS OF THE DIVINE PROVI- 
DENCE * 

1866 

The Congregation of the Sisters of the Divine 
Providence was established in the United States 
in 1866, by Sisters from St. Jean de Bassel, Lor- 
raine. The mother-house, novitiate and scholas- 
tic for the Sisters are located in San Antonio, 
Texas. 

The Sisters conduct establishments in the arch- 
dioceses of New Orleans and St. Louis, in the 
Vicariate apostolic of Brownsville and in the dio- 
ceses of Dallas, Galveston, Alexandria, Oklahoma 
and San Antonio. 

*From the Catholic Directory of 1912. 



SISTERS OF SAINT FRANCIS* 

1868 

The Community of the Sisters of St. Francis 
was established at Mt. Olivet, Nelson County, Ken- 
tucky, in the year 1868 by Right Reverend Bishop 
Lavialle, assisted by the Right Reverend Abbot 
Benedict, of Gethsemine, Kentucky. It was their 
intention to found an order of Sisters who would 
conduct an industrial school and enable girls of 
moderate means to obtain a Catholic education. 

For this purpose three young ladies were sent 

*Especially prepared by the Sisters of St. Francis, Mt. Be. Clare, 
Clinton, Iowa. 



240 SISTERS OF ST. FRANCIS 

-. * 
to Oldenburg, Indiana, where they made their 

novitiate and pronounced their vows on June 19, 

1868. They then returned to Mt. Olivet and 

Mother M. Paula Beaven was elected the first 

Mother Superior. A boarding and industrial 

school was then opened and did good work until 

the death of Right Rev. Bishop Lavialle. His 

successor in the See of Louisville, Right. Rev. 

Bishop McCloskey, did not like the location at Mt. 

Olivet, and he advised the Sisters to move the 

mother-house to Shelbyville, which was done in 

1874. However, Shelbyville was found very un- 

suited for the purpose and the Sisters met with 

little success in their new field of labor. They 

struggled on here in poverty and privation for 

several years, the community in the meantime 

increasing slowly but steadily. 

In 1890 the Jesuit Fathers succeeded in procur- 
ing an opening for the Sisters in the diocese of 
Dubuque, Iowa. The community came to Iowa 
and Right Reverend Bishop Hennessey established 
their mother-house at Anamosa, Iowa, January 6, 
1891. Finding that Anamosa was not a desirable 
location for a novitiate, the Sisters obtained the 
consent of the Bishop to purchase property in 
Clinton, Iowa, and on October 4, 1893, the Com- 
munity moved to their new home. 

A boarding school was then opened and the 
next year it was found necessary to enlarge the 
building for the increasing attendance. 

Prosperity attended the labors of the Sisters 
and in 1898 they bought another piece of property 
in Clinton which was used for a novitiate. Later 
on two more additions were built to the academy 
which afterward was used as the Sisters' novitiate, 
while larger and more commodious modern build- 




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POOR HANDMAIDS 241 

ings have been erected for the academy and 
boarding school. The grounds surrounding the 
original Mt. St. Clare Academy not being ex- 
tensive enough, the Sisters decided to build the 
new academy on the property known at Mt. Al- 
verno and formerly used as a novitiate. 

The old building was accordingly torn down 
and work on the new academy was started in the 
Summer of 1910. A beautiful building costing 
$200,000 was erected and formerly opened for stu- 
dents in September, 1911. 

On October 4, Most Rev. J. Keane, Archbishop 
of Dubuque, dedicated the magnificent building 
and gave the address on that occasion. 

The community now numbers nearly two hun- 
dred members, and conducts schools in Iowa, Il- 
linois, Kentucky, Ohio and Nebraska. In Macomb, 
Illinois, the Sisters conduct a hospital. 



POOR HANDMAIDS OF JESUS 
CHRIST * 

1868 

The Community of the "Poor Handmaids of 
Jesus Christ" was founded by Miss Katharina Ras- 
per at Dernbach, Germany, August 15, 1851. On 
this day the first five Sisters made their profession 
and Miss Katharina Kasper, Sister Mary, was 
elected Mother General and continued as such 
until her death February 2, 1898. 

The Rules of the Community were approved 
by His Holiness Pope Pius IX., 1870, and con- 

*Especially prepared by the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ, 
St. Joseph's Convent, Fort Wayne, Indiana. 



242 POOR HANDMAIDS 

firmed by Pope Leo XIII. in 1890. The Commu- 
nity, though insignificant in its beginning, has 
grown to a tree, whose branches spread far and 
wide throughout Germany, Bohemia, Selesia, Eng- 
land, Holland and North America. 

In Germany the community numbers over three 
thousand Sisters who have charge of normal 
schools, academies, boarding schools, kindergar- 
tens, orphanages, commercial schools, etc. Be- 
sides the schools, the Sisters conduct hospitals, 
sanitariums, infirmaries, and the sick are also 
nursed by them in their private residences. 

Until the year 1875 the Community had also 
charge of Parochial Schools, but at the breaking 
out of the "Kultur-Kampf," they were deprived of 
them. Through the efforts of the Right Rev. John 
Luers, Bishop of Fort Wayne, and the Rev. Ed- 
ward Koenig, Pastor of St. Paul's Church of the 
city of Fort Wayne, Indiana, the Poor Handmaids 
took up their labors in the United States August 
3, 1868. Unknown and without means, they be- 
gan their work of charity at Hesse Cassel, Indiana. 
Soon after, the invitation of the Very Rev. Peter 
Fischer, V. G., of the Archdiocese of Chicago, 
to take charge of the Orphanage at Rose Hill, was 
accepted. In May, 1869, the sisters established the 
St. Joseph's Hospital at Fort Wayne, Indiana. In 
connection with this is the mother-house, Novi- 
tiate and Normal School for the Poor Hand- 
maids of Jesus Christ in the United States, of 
which Venerable Sister M. Tabitha is Superior 
Provincial. 

The Sisters are engaged in their charitable 
work in the Diocese of Fort Wayne, Belleville, 
Alton, Superior, the Archdioceses of Chicago, St. 
Paul and St. Louis. 




MOTHER KATHARINA KASPER 
Foundress of the Poor Hand-Maids of Jesus Christ 




I 

o 



LITTLE SISTERS OF THE POOR 243 

In these places they take charge of Parochial 
Schools, Orphan Asylums, Hospitals, Infirmaries 
and also nurse the sick in their private homes. 



LITTLE SISTERS OF THE POOR* 

1868 

The Congregation of the Little Sisters of the 
Poor was founded at St. Servan, Brittany, in the 
year 1839. 

The members of the Community follow the 
Rule of St. Augustine and in addition to taking the 
simple vows of religion, they make a vow of hos- 
pitality. 

The special object of the Congregation is to 
provide homes for the aged, without regard to sex 
or creed. For the support of these homes, which 
they have established in nearly every country, the 
Sisters depend upon their own labors and upon 
the alms given them for this purpose. 

On July 9, 1854, the Congregation received the 
approbation of His Holiness, Pope Pius IX. 

In 1868, through the exertions of Mrs. Sarah 
Peter of Cincinnati, Ohio, the Little Sisters of the 
Poor came to the United States and were wel- 
comed in Brooklyn, N. Y., where they made their 
first American foundation. Following this foun- 
dation the Sisters have opened establishments in 
eleven archdioceses and fifteen dioceses in the 
United States. 

While the general Mother-house of the Order is 
in France, the Sisters have established an Ameri- 

*Shea's "History of the Catholic Church in the U. S.," Catholic 
Encyclopedia. 



244 SISTERS OF ST. ANN 

can Novitiate for the Order at Queens, Long Isl- 
and, Brooklyn, N. Y. 

The Eastern Provincial House for the United 
States is at Bushwick and DeKalb Avenues, 
Brooklyn, N. Y., and the Western Provincial 
House is at Fullerton and Sheffield Avenues, Chi- 
cago, Illinois. 



SISTERS OF THE THIRD ORDER OF 
ST. FRANCIS* 

1869 

The Mother-house and novitiate of the Sisters 
of the Third Order of St. Francis of the Congrega- 
tion founded in the United States in 1869 is lo- 
cated at Tiffin, Ohio. 

The Sisters from here conduct establishments in 
the dioceses of Columbus and Cleveland, Ohio. 

*Catholic Directory of 1912. 



SISTERS OF ST. ANN* 
1870 

At the request of Right Rev. Bishop McNierney 
of Albany the Congregation of the Sisters of St. 
Ann at Lachine, Province of Quebec, Canada, 
made a foundation of their Order in Oswego, New 
York, in the year 1870. 

In 1881 the Sisters opened establishments in 
Massachusetts in the diocese of Springfield. In 

*History of the Catholic Church in the United States. 



SISTERS OF ST. MARY 245 

1896 the various houses of the Order in the United 
States were organized into a province and the 
Provincial house and Novitiate established at 
Marlboro, Massachusetts. 

The Sisters of this Congregation conduct estab- 
lishments in the Archdiocese of Boston, in the 
dioceses of Albany, Providence and Springfield 
and in the Prefecture Apostolic of Alaska. 



SISTERS OF ST. MARY* 

1872 

The Sisters of St. Mary, of the Congregation in 
Paris, France, established a foundation in St. 
Louis, Missouri, in 1872. The Sisters conduct es- 
tablishments in the archdioceses of St. Louis and 
Chicago and in the dioceses of Kansas City and 
St. Joseph, Missouri. 

*From the Catholic Directory of 1912. 



SISTERS OF THE PERPETUAL 

ADORATION OF THE BLESSED 

SACRAMENT * 

1872 

The Congregation of the Sisters of the Perpet- 
ual Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament was 
founded by Blessed Mother Mechtilde de Baar at 
Paris in 1654. At that time the Thirty Years War 

*Especially prepared by the Sisters of the Perpetual Adoration, 
Convent of Perpetual Adoration, 2321 Marais Street, New Orleans, 
Louisiana. 



246 SISTERS OF 

made frightful ravages in all Europe. The pious 
queen of France, Anne of Austria, deeply touched 
at the sight of so much misery caused by this un- 
fortunate war, and wishing earnestly to find a 
means to remove this scourge from her beloved 
country, addressed herself to a saintly priest of 
St. Sulpice, Reverend M. Picote, begging him to 
make a vow, in her name, of whatever he judged 
would appease the wrath of God, and that she 
would joyfully fulfill it. 

This holy man, after having prayed long and 
fervently, came to the conclusion that nothing 
would be more for the honor and glory of God, 
and induce Him to show mercy to His people, 
than the foundation of an order of women who 
would, day and night, render Him their homage 
of adoration, praise, thanksgiving and reparation 
in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar, in which 
He was then so grievously and almost unceasingly 
offended. He therefore made this vow in the 
name of the queen, who on hearing it, recognized 
in it the holy will of God. 

She entrusted Blessed Mother Mechtilde with 
the foundation of the first Convents of Perpetual 
Adoration and greatly encouraged and helped her 
in the work. On the 25th of March, 1654, the Per- 
petual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament began. 
Since then, many Convents of this Order have 
been established in Europe. 

In 1851, a saintly priest, Reverend Aloysius Fal- 
ler, wishing to propagate the devotion to the Most 
Blessed Sacrament, asked and obtained Sisters of 
this Order from a Convent at Rosenheim, Alsace. 
With his own ample fortune, he built for them a 
new Convent at Bellemagny, Htl. Alsace, Ht. 
Rhin, and it is from thence, that our own beloved 



PERPETUAL ADORATION 247 

Mother and foundress, Mother M. Augustine, was 
sent in 1872, with only three other Sisters to found 
Convents here in America. 

The first and principal object of the Congrega- 
tion is the Perpetual Adoration of the Most Bles- 
sed Sacrament, day and night, by two or more 
Sisters, who succeed each other every hour before 
the tabernacle. In the Mother-house, or in a com- 
munity, where the Sisters are numerous enough 
to keep the adoration by four, they may, with the 
permission of the Ordinary, have the perpetual 
solemn exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. The 
Sisters of this Congregation have thus made it 
their noble duty to attend, day and night, the King 
of kings, to form His court and to render Him 
above all the homage of adoration befitting His 
divine Majesty. They also offer Him, during their 
hours of adoration, reparation for the many sacri- 
leges committed against Him in this august Mys- 
tery, and pay Him the tribute of praise, love and 
thanksgiving which it is in their power to bestow. 
Moreover they pray for all mankind, particularly 
for the exaltation of the Catholic Church, for the 
sovereign Pontiff, for the clergy, for the conver- 
sion of sinners, infidels, etc., for their benefactors 
and for the poor souls in purgatory. 

The Sisters follow the rule of St. Augustine. 
The postulate lasts from three to twelve months, 
the novitiate a full year. The religious of this 
Congregation make temporary vows during five 
years, after which time they may be allowed to 
make their perpetual vows. 

The secondary object of the Congregation is 
the education of children in academies and paro- 
chial schools and the care of orphans. 

The ten Convents of this Order now existing in 



248 SISTERS OF 

America were all founded by Reverend Mother M. 
Augustine, the Superioress General of the Congre- 
gation. His Grace, Rt. Rev. N. J. Perche, then 
Archbishop of New Orleans, first established these 
sisters in the parish of the Annunciation at New 
Orleans, where they assumed the charge of the 
parochial schools. In 1879 they also opened St. 
Agnes' Academy for boarders and day scholars. 
The Mother-house and Novitiate are now at 2321 
Marais Street, in New Orleans. The beautiful 
chapel adjoining the Convent was erected in 1894, 
the following year the brick school building next 
to the Convent was completed. A second Convent 
was founded at New Orleans in 1874 at the corner 
of Marigny and Villere Streets, where the Sisters 
teach the colored children. 

In September, 1882, the Convent at Oubre, P. 0., 
Archdiocese of New Orleans, was founded. At- 
tached to the Convent is an Academy as well as 
the parochial schools. The Convent is beautifully 
situated on the banks of the Mississippi, in a 
charming pecan grove. 

The Convent at Pascagoula, Miss., in the diocese 
of Natchez, was founded in October, 1882. To this 
Convent are attached an Academy and parochial 
schools. This place has many advantages. Reing 
situated near the sea-coast it serves as a summer 
resort to the sisters and to the children who pass 
their summer vacations at the Convent. The fresh 
sea-breezes, the strengthening sea-baths and the 
sweet breath of the pine woods, all concur to 
make this an ideal summer home. 

In 1890, a Convent was founded in Gretna, Lou- 
isiana, a suburb of New Orleans. Here the Sis- 
ters conduct a boarding school for little boys from 
six to twelve years of age. This school being lo- 



PERPETUAL ADORATION 249 

cated outside the city, it enjoys the advantages 
of both the country and of the city. The paro- 
chial schools in this place are also taught by the 
Sisters. 

A Convent was next founded at Breaux-Bridge, 
La., in 1891. Here in the beautiful country of 
Longfellow's "Evangeline" the Sisters have a 
stately Convent and Academy, situated on the 
banks of the beautiful Bayou Teche. Here, as 
elsewhere, the parochial schools are also taught 
by the Sisters. In 1899, a third foundation was 
made in New Orleans, on St. Maurice's Avenue, in 
the garden district of the city. In 1900, a Convent 
was established in Crowley, La., followed by the 
opening of an Academy and parochial schools. In 
1906, a Convent was founded in West Falls 
Church, Virginia, near Washington, D. C. in the 
diocese of Richmond, Va. 

In 1907, a Convent was established in the old 
historical city of Pensacola, Florida. In this place, 
which is opposite St. Rosa's Island, where the first 
holy sacrifice of the Mass is said to have been 
celebrated on American soil, it is hoped that the 
devotion to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament will 
take deep root. The seed thereof will be plenti- 
fully sown in the fertile soil of the children's 
youthful hearts, at the beautiful, newly erected 
Convent and Academy only recently finished and 
blessed by His Lordship, Rt. Rev. E. Allen, Bishop 
of Mobile, as also in the parochial schools which 
the Sisters are teaching, in the parish of the 
Sacred Heart. 

Besides the work of teaching, the Sisters de- 
vote much time to the making of Vestments and 
all kinds of Church Ornaments. 



250 SISTERS OF 



THE SISTERS OF CHRISTIAN 
CHARITY * 

1873 

The Congregation of the Sisters of Christian 
Charity, Daughters of the Blessed Virgin Mary of 
the Immaculate Conception, was founded in 1849 
at Paderborn, Germany, by Pauline von Mallinck- 
rodt, a daughter of the renowned statesman Det- 
mar von Mallinckrodt and Bernardine von Hart- 
mann. Pauline was born June 3, 1817, at Minden 
in Westphalia, being the eldest of four children 
all of whom enjoyed a most excellent religious 
and liberal education. Pauline bore a most strik- 
ing resemblance to her brother Hermann not only 
in physique but also in character and spiritual en- 
dowments, each having been destined in a singu- 
lar manner to carry out the designs of Divine 
Providence; Hermann von Mallinckrodt as cham- 
pion and leader in the Central Part of the German 
Reichstag, espoused the cause of his suppressed 
Catholic countrymen; Pauline sacrificing the 
splendors of a brilliant career which her high 
social rank offered, to embrace the sublime state 
of a humble religious and to enter upon the labors 
of love in the Sanctuary of the Christian educa- 
tion of youth. 

Pauline's early life was marked by an extra- 
ordinary piety and unbounded charity toward the 
sick and poor. In company with several other 
pious young ladies she took charge of a number 
of poor blind children, for whose bodily and spir- 

*Especially prepared by the Sisters of Christian Charity, Mal- 
linckrodt Convent, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. 




MOTHER PAULINE VON MALLINCKRODT 
Foundress of the Sisters of Christian Charity 



CHRISTIAN CHARITY 251 

itual needs she provided with the love and devot- 
edness of a mother. However, it soon became 
manifest that this was not her proper sphere; she 
realized her higher vocation, and in gladsome 
obedience to the Master's call at once began to 
seek among the various existing religious Orders 
an asylum for her poor blind charges from whom 
she did not wish to part. Her most earnest en- 
deavors and repeated solicitations, however, 
proved of no avail. Complying with the urgent 
requests of her ecclesiastical superiors who per- 
ceived in these circumstances the express will of 
Heaven, and with their active support and en- 
couragement, Pauline with three associates laid 
the foundation of a new Order. The establish- 
ment adopted the significant title "Sisters of 
Christian Charity"; the additional title "Daugh- 
ters of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Immaculate 
Conception" was conferred on the Sisterhood 
somewhat later by the Sovereign Pontiff Pius IX. 

Two of the most renowned Bishops of Pader- 
born, the venerable and saintly Franz Drepper, 
and the illustrious confessor and exile Dr. Con- 
rad Martin, became greatly interested in the new 
foundation, and did all in their power to secure 
its stability. Bishop Conrad Martin, who at the 
time acted as a member of the Vatican Council, 
was instrumental in obtaining for the institute the 
approbation of the Holy See in the year 1867. 
Through the powerful influence of the same ven- 
erable prelate and at the expense of great per- 
sonal sacrifices the Rules and Constitutions of the 
Order received in 1888 the approbation in per- 
petuum. 

The foundation prospered, the membership 
augmented, schools and academies were opened 



252 SISTERS OF 

and the Sisters, favored by both civil and ecclesi- 
astical authorities, were laboring peacefully and 
fruitfully until the year 1871, when the so-called 
"Kulturkampf" broke out with its host of attend- 
ing evils. When the "May Laws" of 1871 com- 
pelled all the Catholic teaching Orders to aban- 
don their various fields of labor, the Sisters of 
Christian Charity also were confronted with the 
portentous alternative of giving up either their 
position or their habit. In this great calamity the 
sterling qualities of the saintly Foundress shone 
out in all their greatness ; she endured all with ex- 
emplary fortitude and an unwavering trust in 
Providence, realizing full well that the Cross in- 
flicted upon her foundation was but the seal of 
Divine approval. The farsighted and enlightened 
Mother did not for a moment lose courage, but 
with the intrepid spirit and zeal of an apostle and 
missionary, directed her ambition beyond the sea 
in quest of a new field of labor. 

The Church in the United States was at the time 
greatly in need of religious teachers, and here the 
exiled Community received a glad welcome. In 
1873 the first colony of Sisters came to the New 
World. In answer to an urgent request of Rev- 
erend Father Bogaerts, rector of St. Henry's 
Church, at New Orleans, a convent and a paro- 
chial school were established in that city. Bishop 
O'Hara of Scranton, Pa., aware of the conditions 
in Germany regarding the religious Orders, be- 
came greatly interested in the establishment of 
the order in his diocese and expressed a desire of 
having the Provincial Mother-house erected in the 
episcopal city. The Right Rev. P. C. Nagel, rec- 
tor of St. Nicholas Church at Wilkes-Barre also 
solicited the Reverend Mother to send Sisters to 
take charge of the parochial school. 



CHRISTIAN CHARITY 253 

These repeated entreaties induced Mother Pau- 
line to set out on her voyage to America without 
delay. Upon her arrival in the New World she 
and her companion, Sister Gonzaga, at once vis- 
ited the Rishop of Scranton, by whom they were 
most cordially welcomed. The Reverend Mother 
presented the Rishop a letter of recommendation 
from Rishop Conrad Martin of Paderborn in an- 
swer to which Rishop O'Hara kindly said: "You 
just come here; you shall be my children, and I 
will be your father." He also expressed the de- 
sire of placing all the German parochial schools 
of his diocese in charge of the Sisters of Christian 
Charity, and soon after arrangements for the 
opening of a parochial school and an academy in 
Wilkes-Rarre were agreed upon. 

The erection of the Provincial Mother-house 
was what next occupied the attention of Mother 
Pauline, and in this arduous undertaking she 
found a ready and devoted friend in Right Rev. 
P. C. Nagel who not only materially aided her in 
the present case but ever afterward proved a zeal- 
ous and enthusiastic patron of the order. 

A high eminence in the eastern 'part of Wilkes- 
Rarre, known as Park Hill, was chosen as the most 
suitable place for the erection of the Provincial 
Mother-house. The site commands a magnificent 
view of the romantic Wyoming Valley, through 
which the beautiful Susquehanna winds its sil- 
very course, with the Rlue Mountains in their 
magical hues on either side swelling up to a noble 
height. All preliminary arrangements for the 
construction of the building having been brought 
to a happy issue, Mother Pauline entered upon 
her return voyage to Europe with the grateful 
conviction that Divine Providence had opened to 



254 SISTERS OF 

her Community in the New World a fruitful and 
ever-widening field of labor. 

The threatening danger of a complete suppres- 
sion and dissolution of the Order was now hap- 
pily averted. The firm footing that the Order had 
already gained in America, and the ever-increas- 
ing membership of the Community proved strong 
safeguards for its future existence and rendered 
less painful the departure of the Sisters from 
their own native soil. In September, 1873, a col- 
ony of pioneer Sisters left Paderborn, the cradle 
of the Order, and upon their arrival in New York 
they at once repaired to their respective missions 
at Wilkes-Barre and New York City. 

Mother Mathilde was appointed superior of the 
newly established Province. Unfortunately, how- 
ever, serious illness prevented her joining this ex- 
pedition, and postponed her departure until 
April, 1874. This was, however, a Providential 
coincidence, since in the meantime urgent re- 
quests for Sisters had been received from various 
sections of the country. Mother Mathilde accom- 
panied by her assistant, Sister Philomena, and a 
number of Sisters, landed on the hospitable 
shores of New York, where they were welcomed 
with enthusiasm by clergy and laity; Mother Ma- 
thilde entering upon her arduous duties of Pro- 
vincial Superior, the Sisters assuming charge of 
several parochial schools in the diocese of Scran- 
ton and also in the far West. 

Mother Mathilde, who may be looked upon as 
co-foundress of the Community because of her as- 
sociation with Mother Pauline from the first in- 
ception of the work, governed an ever-increasing 
Community with consummate wisdom and virtue. 
Her strength of character and firm trust in God 



CHRISTIAN CHARITY 255 

made her eminently well fitted for the leadership 
in the New World and from the outset she formed 
her subjects gently and maternally in the spirit of 
the Foundress, to the virtues of a religious life, 
especially simplicity, obedience and charity. 
With the heroism of a saint the humble but ener- 
getic and persevering Mother Mathilde sur- 
mounted all difficulties, and became not only the 
great mainstay of the exiled Sisters, but also the 
guiding genius of the rising generations of Reli- 
gious in America. 

Owing to a lack of funds the building of the 
projected Mother-house was delayed, therefore a 
cozy little frame dwelling served as a temporary 
Mother-house. In 1877 the stately edifice, known 
as Mallinckrodt Convent, was begun and at the be- 
ginning of 1878 was ready for occupancy. This 
commodious and spacious structure furnished 
ample accommodations for the Sisterhood, serv- 
ing the general purposes of a Mother-house and a 
Novitiate. Among the privileges granted to the 
newly established Sisterhood may be mentioned 
one very striking and forceful for a teaching 
order, namely, the efficiency of its early members. 
Prior to their establishment in America they had 
conducted both elementary and higher Catholic 
schools, supported and supervised by a Govern- 
ment which engaged only professionally trained 
and certified teachers. The enlightened Foundress 
and the pioneer Sisters fully recognized the abso- 
lute necessity of well-qualified teachers in order 
to labor successfully as educators of the Catholic 
youth, and therefore at once organized a Normal 
and Training School for the young Sisters at the 
Mother-house. 

In the Normal Course, which includes Prepara- 



256 SISTERS OF 

tory work and from three to five years Normal 
work, the young teachers are prepared for their 
professional career with the utmost care, the course 
of study being based on sound religious principles 
and the best modern systems of pedagogy. 

St. Ann's Academy was opened in 1878, offering 
young ladies all the advantages of a higher edu- 
cation in the German as well as in the English 
language, no pains being spared to give the pupils 
a solid, comprehensive and practical Christian ed- 
ucation. Both the Novitiate and the Academy 
prospered, and it became necessary in 1884 to 
build an addition to the Convent, containing a 
beautiful and spacious chapel, besides large 
apartments for the Novitiate. The building was 
also made more serviceable by the introduction 
of modern systems of heating, lighting and ven- 
tilation. A further addition to the building was 
made in 1894 which secured adequate accommo- 
dations for the purposes of the Academy, and pro- 
vided the Institution with the best sanitary ap- 
pliances. A domestic course was opened in St. 
Ann's Academy which offered students the neces- 
sary training to preside over a well-regulated 
household. 

In 1890 the Josephinum Academy, boarding and 
day school — working upon the same plan as St. 
Ann's Academy — was opened at Chicago. Both 
Institutions were incorporated under the laws of 
their respective States and enjoy all the rights 
and privileges of the most prominent teaching in- 
stitutions of our country. 

In 1881 it pleased God to call the saintly Foun- 
dress, Mother Pauline, to her eternal reward, and 
at the General Chapter shortly after, Mother Ma- 
thilde was unanimously elected to succeed the 



CHRISTIAN CHARITY 257 

Foundress as Superior General. She governed the 
Congregation wisely and well for twelve years, 
and died at an advanced age in 1895. Mother 
Philomena, who had been her support and coun- 
sellor for many years, succeeded Mother Mathilde 
as superior of the North American Province. 

Mother Philomena was singularly endowed for 
the work she was delegated to propagate, and ad- 
ministered the affairs of the Community with pru- 
dence, justice and an untiring zeal and devotion. 
Under her able management the development of 
the Community continued vigorously, and the 
Mother Superior readily responded to the many 
calls for Sisters made on her zeal and generosity. 
In 1887 Mother Philomena was invited to Pader- 
born in order to officiate as a member of the Gen- 
eral Chapter, but was unable to return to America 
on account of protracted illness. Mother Regina, 
who had filled the important position of secretary 
to the Chancery, besides other important offices, 
was next installed as Mother Provincial. Little 
did the good Mother Philomena anticipate the de- 
signs of God in the sad incidence of her illness. 
It was, however, an all-wise Providence preparing 
the pious and heroic soul of the worthy Mother 
for the burdensome office of Mother General, 
which devolved upon her at the close of the saint- 
ly career of Mother Mathilde. 

The Congregation of the Sisters of Christian 
Charity, Daughters of the Blessed Virgin Mary of 
the Immaculate Conception, embraces three prov- 
inces, a German, a North American, and a South 
American. In North America the membership is 
about eight hundred, working in the archdioceses 
of New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Chicago, 
Cincinnati, St. Louis, St. Paul and New Orleans, 

17 



258 BENEDICTINE SISTERS 

and in the dioceses of Scranton, Albany, Brooklyn, 
Newark, Syracuse, Harrisburg, Detroit, Belleville, 
and Sioux City. The children entrusted to the 
Community in parochial schools, academies, or- 
phanages and industrial schools, number about 
seventeen thousand. 

The numerous establishments of the Order are 
affiliated to the original Mother-house at Pader- 
born, and are visited at regular intervals both by 
the Mother Provincial and Mother General. The 
close union existing in the Order, despite its wide- 
spread activity, is undoubtedly a rare privilege 
and prerogative which has ever been guarded by 
its members as a most sacred inheritance. This 
union of purpose and effort has proved the effica- 
cious means of preserving and transmitting in the 
Community the spirit of the original foundation 
in all its vigor and purity. The same lofty ideals, 1 
the same self-abnegation, the same firm trust in 
God has inspired a vast number of heroic souls 
who in the course of time have followed in the 
footsteps of the saintly Foundress. 



BENEDICTINE SISTERS OF MT. 

OLIVE * 

(White Benedictines) 

1874 

As American History cannot be studied thor- 
oughly unless viewed with a European back- 
ground, likewise the history of our humble Con- 
vent leads us across the sea, over mountains and 

*Especially prepared by the Benedictine Sisters cf Mt. Olive, 
Holy Angels' Convent, Jonesboro, Arkansas. 




(White Benedictine) 

BENEDICTINE SISTER OF THE CONGREGATION OF MT. OLIVE 

Jonesboro, Arkansas 



OF MT. OLIVE 259 

valleys, until our wandering mind reaches a 
quaint, picturesque Convent, nestling high up on 
a peak of the Swiss Alps: it is the Benedictine 
Convent "Maria Rickenbach." There in 1862 and 
again in 1867 two virgins, (Sister M. Agnes Dali 
and Sister M. Beatrice Renggle) who later were 
destined by God to found a Convent in Arkansas, 
solemnly pronounced their vows as daughters of 
St. Benedict. In response to an appeal to take up 
missionary work in America, the above men- 
tioned Sisters (with three others) left Switzerland 
in August, 1874, and the same year they estab- 
lished the Benedictine Convent in Clyde, Missouri. 

Ever solicitous for the salvation of souls we find 
these same Sisters ready to obey when asked to 
undergo the obstacles of founding a Convent in 
Arkansas. The last quarter of the Nineteenth cen- 
tury witnessed a slow but steady increase in the 
Catholic population of Northeast Arkansas. To 
insure the priceless gift of our holy religion also 
to the younger generations, it became imperative 
to open Catholic schools at least in the larger cen- 
ters of population. Very Rev. Father J. E. Wei- 
bel, who was then in charge of the missions in 
Northeast Arkansas, applied to different religious 
communities to send Sisters to Pocahontas, Ark., 
not only to take charge of the schools but also to 
establish a Convent there. When it seemed that 
all appeals were made in vain, the Rt. Rev. Abbot 
Conrad, 0. S. B., of Conception, Mo., came to the 
assistance. He made arrangements to send Sis- 
ters from the Benedictine Convents in Clyde and 
in Maryville, Mo. (The last named Convent has 
since been transferred to Yankton, South Da- 
kota.) 

The first four Sisters reached Pocahontas in the 



260 BENEDICTINE SISTERS 

evening of December 13, 1887, and were given a 
most cordial welcome by citizens of the town. 
The four Sisters were : Mother M. Agnes Dali, now 
the senior member of the Community; Mother M. 
Beatrice Renggle, the first Superioress; Sister M. 
Walburga McFadden and Sister M. Frances 
Metzler. 

The late Rt. Rev. Bishop Edward Fitzgerald, D. 
D., donated twenty-four acres of ground to the 
Sisters. The original Convent building in Poca- 
hontas was an old log-house which had witnessed 
a scene of strife and bloodshed during the unfor- 
tunate days of the Civil War. The humble fur- 
nishings were in harmony with the building. Sev- 
enty-three cents, willing hands to perform any la- 
bor, and an ardent zeal coupled with undaunted 
energy, were the capital to start the undertaking. 
That not only the strictest but also the most in- 
genious economy had to be practiced, need not 
be mentioned. Animated with confidence in Di- 
vine Providence, the Sisters cheerfully faced pov- 
erty and privations. God blessed the work and 
slowly but surely the mustard-seed took root. 

June 24, 1888, the Rt. Rev. Bishop Fitzgerald 
blessed the Convent under the title "Maria Stein," 
— "Our Lady of the Rock" — in remembrance of 
the famous shrine of the same name in Switzer- 
land; moreover, the Convent is built on a rocky 
hill. Gradually the Community increased in mem- 
bership, and the Sisters were thus enabled to car- 
ry out their prime object— the education of youth 
in parochial schools. For a number of years the 
Sisters also conducted schools for colored chil- 
dren in Pocahontas and in Jonesboro. 

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OF MT. OLIVE 261 

iated to the Congregation of Mount Olive, in 
Rome, and adopted the white habit worn by the 
members of that Congregation, retaining, how- 
ever, the vows and rules of St. Benedict. 

In 1898 the Mother-house and novitiate were 
transferred from Pocahontas to Jonesboro. The 
new Holy Angels Convent in Jonesboro was dedi- 
cated July 10, 1898, by the Rt. Rev. Bishop Fitz- 
gerald. 

The need of a hospital for this rapidly develop- 
ing section of Arkansas became more and more 
apparent. With the consent of the Rt. Rev. Or- 
dinary, the Sisters made arrangements to found 
a hospital. A frame residence, adjacent to the 
Convent property, was purchased; the house was 
immediately remodeled to suit its new mission, 
and the hospital was opened July 5, 1900. In May, 
1901, another residence was purchased and con- 
nected with the original hospital. To provide 
larger and more commodious quarters for the 
sick and infirm, the Sisters erected a new hos- 
pital, equipped with all modern conveniences and 
appliances, and on January 1, 1906, the new St. 
Bernard's Hospital was opened to the public. 

Simultaneously with the hospital, a spacious 
Convent Chapel was erected. The first services in 
this new sanctuary were celebrated on the Feast 
of St. Joseph, 1906. The Chapel was formally ded- 
icated by the Rt. Rev. Bishop John B. Morris, D. 
D., on May 22, 1907. 

The Community of the Benedictine Sisters of 
the Congregation of Mt. Olive is a diocesan insti- 
tution and is independent of any other House. The 
principal aims of the institution are to teach the 
youth in parochial schools and to attend the sick 
in hospitals. The Sisters conduct parochial 



262 FRANCISCAN SRS. OF PENANCE 

schools in the diocese of Little Rock, Ark., and 
Dallas, Texas. They also have charge of the do- 
mestic duties at Little Rock College and St. John's 
Seminary, both founded by Rt. Rev. Bishop Mor- 
ris, D. D. 

Like to all the religious institutions, so also to 
this particular community, may be applied the 
words: "The harvest indeed is great, but the la- 
borers are few." (St. Matthew x„ 37J 



THE SISTERS OF ST. FRANCIS OF 

PENANCE AND CHRISTIAN 

CHARITY * 

1874 

The Congregation of the Sisters of Penance 
and Christian Charity of the Third Order of St. 
Francis was founded in Heythuizen, a village in 
the Dutch Limburg, in 1835. The Foundress was 
Catharine Dahmen, a poor but very virtuous 
maiden. Three equally and simple, and in the 
eyes of the world insignificant companions, living 
in the neighborhood joined her. After many dif- 
ficulties, which could only be overcome by the 
special help and protection of the Almighty, the 
first convent, exceedingly poor then, but now the 
General Mother-house, was established. On the 
3rd of October, 1852, the new foundation already 
obtained the sanction of His Holiness, Pius IX. 
By adopting the old constitutions of the so-called 
Recollect Sisters of the Third Order, (the authors 
of which had been the ingenious and saintlike Fa- 

*Especially prepared by the Sisters of St. Francis, Stella Niagara, 
New York. 



AND CHRISTIAN CHARITY 263 

ther Peter Marchant, Procurator General for the 
Franciscans of Upper and Lower Germany and 
the venerable Mother Johanna of Jesus), which 
constitutions had been sanctioned by the Holy See 
on July 15, 1634. The new Congregation was 
grafted upon a rigorous stem, which had taken 
root and had prospered in a most fertile soil 
through three centuries. Modified according to 
the exigencies of the times, and again approved 
by the Holy See on September 5, 1869, its Con- 
stitutions — now founded on well-tried old stat- 
utes and useful innovations, have been repeatedly 
consulted by different congregations on the occa- 
sion of important alterations in their rules; twice 
they have been formally pointed out by the Holy 
See as a model according to which the Constitu- 
tions of other Congregations were to be revised. 

The Congregation is under the direction of a 
Superior-General. At present it has one hundred 
and ten convents with more than 2,500 living 
members, and has a total of more than 40,000 
souls confided to its care. There are two prov- 
inces, Dutch and German, each under the di- 
rection of a Provincial. To the Dutch Prov- 
ince the Mother-house at Heythuizen, near Roer- 
mond (Dutch Limburg) belong twenty- two con- 
vents in Europe, as well as the far extending mis- 
sionary districts in Dutch East India with six 
houses. 

The Mother-house of the German Province is 
situated at Nonnenwerth, an island in the Rhine. 
There is scarcely another convent in the world, 
which like Nonnenwerth, seems to look to another 
sphere on a business and whirl of international 
life without becoming itself intermingled. There 
is hardly another convent which like Nonnen- 



264 FRANCISCAN SRS. OF PENANCE 

werth is framed into such a beautiful picture by 
their surroundings. Who does not know of the 
beautiful sunset of the seven Mountains! The 
evening sun spins a golden net over the island 
and every window of the convent reflects its 
glory. And above the island towers the Drachen- 
fels with its characteristic outline, dark and earn- 
est, into the blue heavens, while upon it also is 
reflected the deep purple, yellow and blue rays 
of the sinking sun, giving it a still deeper tone. 
Between the mountain and the island lies the 
Rhine, whose waves resemble by reflection yel- 
low, purple and violet. Yes, indeed, the island 
is so beautiful that a king might be tempted to 
envy it; for centuries it has been the abode of 
Religious as its name implies, but the present or- 
der took possession in 1854. 

From this convent the Sisters are sent to filial 
houses, of which there are thirty-two in Europe, 
and to the missions in Brazil comprising twenty 
convents, the principal seat being at St. Leopoldo; 
that of North America twenty-four houses, the 
Novitiate being at Stella Niagara, N. Y.; and that 
of German, S. W. Africa with four houses. 

The Sisters' sphere of labor is varied and ex- 
tensive. They have boarding schools for the 
higher, lower and middle classes; schools for pri- 
mary and secondary education, and training col- 
leges for teachers; kindergartens and establish- 
ments for training in housekeeping, schools for 
factory girls, and Sunday schools, orphanages and 
homes for neglected children, institutions for the 
weak-minded and asylums for the insane. They 
also undertake the nursing of the sick at the hos- 
pitals and at private houses, and another branch 
of their activity is the making of church orna- 
ments and embroidery. 



AND CHRISTIAN CHARITY 265 

The history of the Sisters in the United States 
dates from 1874, when the "Kulturkampf" closed 
a number of their schools in Germany, and the 
Mother General came in person to America to 
find another place in activity. She accepted two 
parochial schools in Buffalo, and an Orphanage 
and an Academy in New Lexington and Colum- 
bus, Ohio. The same year a novitiate was opened 
at Sacred Heart Convent in Buffalo. 

In the course of time, the buildings were found 
too small to accommodate the Sisters and they 
were obliged to seek a more suitable place on 
which to build. In 1907 the Provincial Supe- 
rioress, Mother Seraphine, visited America and 
saw the necessity of building. She thereupon se- 
lected a location on the Niagara River, and in 
1908, the new Mother-house was erected. Being 
completed in 1909, it was dedicated to Our Lady 
of the Sacred Heart under the title of "Stella Ni- 
agara." It comprises a Novitiate, Normal School 
for Sisters, and a seminary for young ladies. 

The Sisters, over four hundred in number, are 
now throughout the United States, in charge of 
Orphanages, Academies, Parochial schools and 
Hospitals. 



THE SISTERS OF NOTRE DAME, 
CLEVELAND, OHIO* 

1874 

The Community of the Sisters of Notre Dame 
of Cleveland, Ohio, is a branch of the order 
founded by the Blessed Mother Julia Billiart. It 

♦Especially prepared by the Sisters of Notre Dame, Cleveland, Ohio. 



266 SISTERS OF NOTRE DAME 

was called into existence by the Rev. Theodore 
Elting, a zealous priest of Coesfeld, Germany, 
who desired to form a religious community 
whose members should devote themselves to the 
education of youth. The execution of his plans 
demanded financial resources and intellectual 
abilities on the part of his candidates. Divine 
Providence, favoring his design, inspired a young 
lady of wealth with the desire to devote her for- 
tune to the education of poor children, while a 
friend of hers, a teacher of ability, was eager to 
instruct the poor. Thus the two friends, Misses 
Wolbring and Kuhling, became the first Sisters of 
Notre Dame of the German Branch, being ini- 
tiated into the religious life by three Sisters of 
Notre Dame from Amersford, Holland, as Sisters 
Aloysia and Ignatia. 

God's signal blessing rested upon the newly es- 
tablished community at Coesfeld. The number 
of novices and sisters rapidly increased, thus en- 
abling them to open a Normal School for the edu- 
cation of teachers. In a short time, pastors of 
different parishes in Westphalia and Rhenish- 
Prussia applied for Sisters to teach the children 
of their schools, and as the official examinations 
passed by the religious proved them competent to 
teach, the Prussian government readily consented 
to their appointment, on condition however, of 
their independence of foreign authority. This 
occasioned the separation from Amersford. In 
June, 1855. Jhe convent at Coesfeld was made the 
Mother-house and Sister Mary Anna was appoint- 
ed Superior-General. In less than twenty-five 
years the community numbered three hundred 
Sisters and Jhirty converts. When the "Kultur- 
kampf" broke out, in 1871, the Religious at Coes- 



B 



OF CLEVELAND, OHIO 267 

feld were among the first victims. They were 
obliged to leave their dear native land and seek 
a new field of labor. Through the influence of 
Rev. F. Westerholt, the pastor of St. Peter's 
Church, Cleveland, the first exiled Sisters, eight 
in number, came to the diocese of Cleveland, 
and were kindly welcomed by Bishop Gilmour, 
in July, 1874. Shortly after their arrival, Bishop 
Toebbe of Covington, Ky., applied for Sisters to 
teach in his diocese; hence more Sisters were 
summoned from Germany. Thus the number 
kept on increasing until October, 1877, when 
about two hundred Sisters of the community 
were engaged in this country as teachers. 

For a time Covington, where the Sisters had 
erected an Academy near the Mother of God's 
Church, was the central station of the American 
province. From the beginning, however, it was 
determined to establish the Mother-house in 
Cleveland. Therefore, in the autumn of 1877, 
Mother M. Chrysostom, who, at the death of 
Mother M. Anna, in 1872, had succeeded her in 
the office of Superior-General, let the contract for 
a structure at the corner of Superior and Hunt- 
ington Streets. The work progressed rapidly and 
the new convent was under roof before winter 
set in. A second building, comprising classrooms 
and a beautiful chapel, was erected in 1880. 

A cherished project of Mother Chrysostom was 
to open an institution for children whose circum- 
stances denied them the benefits of a home train- 
ing. Woodland Hills, where the community 
owned eleven acres of land, was the site chosen. 
In 1883 the building was commenced, and on Jan. 
27, 1884, Bishop Gilmour dedicated the chapel. 
"ML St. Mary's," as it is usually called, has grad- 



268 SISTERS OF NOTRE DAME 

ually developed into a flourishing boarding 
school well adapted to the needs of parents who 
wish to have their children fitted for the duties of 
life at a small expense. 

In 1886 the Prussian government allowed the 
return of the Sisters who had been expelled at 
the time of the "Kulturkampf." Mother Chrysos- 
tom desiring to re-open an institution in Ger- 
many, left for Europe on May 12, 1887, accom- 
panied by three Sisters. After an absence of ten 
years from their native land, they were joyfully 
welcomed at the convent in Vechta, Oldenburg, 
where about twenty-five Sisters had been permit- 
ted to remain in charge of a boarding school. 
Mother Chrysostom lost no time in selecting a 
site for a new Mother-house, her choice being the 
picturesque village of Mulhaiisen in Rhenish- 
Prussia, an ideal place for a boarding school, 
which soon became, as it is now, a flourishing in- 
stitution. 

In September, 1891, Mother Chrysostom visited 
the American province. She returned to Europe 
the following year, with no thought that she had 
bid her last farewell to the Sisters. A sudden ill- 
ness cut short her earthly career, April 24, 1895, 
and her unexpected death plunged the commu- 
nity into the deepest grief. The election of her 
successor took place on August 27, 1895, and Sis- 
ter M. Cecilia was chosen to fill the responsible 
office. 

The rapid increase of the community soon 
made the need of more commodious apartments 
imperative. The convent grounds had been en- 
larged by the addition of two more lots. In 
March, 1896, the work of excavation was begun, 
and in October of that year a new three-story 



B 



OF CLEVELAND, OHIO 269 

building, fronting on 18th Street and fitted up 
with all modern improvements, was brought to 
completion. It was dedicated on October 25, 1896, 
by the Rev. F. Westerholt. This was the last of 
the many kind offices which he had rendered to 
the community; for scarcely three weeks later he 
answered the summons of death. On February 2, 
1897, the new auditorium in the same building 
was formally opened by the Rt. Rev. Bishop 
Horstmann. 

Besides their Academy and Mt. St. Mary's Insti- 
tute the Sisters conduct schools in 27 parishes of 
the Cleveland diocese, one Academy and twelve 
schools in the Toledo diocese; one Academy, one 
Orphan Asylum and ten schools in the Covington 
diocese; one Orphanage and three parish schools 
in the archdiocese of Cincinnati, and one school 
in Steelton, Pa., diocese of Harrisburg. 

The course of studies pursued at the Acade- 
mies of the Notre Dame community comprises all 
the branches requisite to a solid and refined edu- 
cation. Besides the preparatory, commercial and 
scientific departments, there are special depart- 
ments for music and art. 

Sister M. Louise is the present Provincial Su- 
perior. The community numbers at present 435 
Sisters in this country. 



270 SISTERS OF PROVIDENCE 



SISTERS OF PROVIDENCE OF 
CHARITY * 

1874 

The Congregation of the Sisters of Providence 
of Charity was founded at Montreal, P. Q., March 
25, 1843, under the Rule of St. Vincent de Paul by 
Rt. Rev. Ignatius Bourget. 

On December 13, 1861, the first house was es- 
tablished at Kingston, Ontario, under the protec- 
tion of Rt. Rev. Edward J. Horan, then Bishop of 
that diocese. From this establishment, four Sis- 
ters with Sister Mary Edward as Local Superior, 
were sent, in 1874, to establish a mission in Holy- 
oke, Massachusetts. In this work they were as- 
sisted by Rt. Rev. Mgr. P. J. Harkins of that city. 

In 1892 this branch of the Sisters of Providence 
of Charity because a diocesan establishment, the 
Mother-house and Novitiate being located at 
"Brightside," Holyoke, Mass. 

The members of this Community devote them- 
selves to the works of Charity. Simple perpetual 
vows are taken by them. The candidate to the 
community is required to spend six months as a 
postulant and eighteen months as a novice; final 
profession then is made five years after the first 
profession. 

The Community — now numbering nearly 300 
members — is governed by a General Chapter, 
Mother Superior and four councilors, Treasurer 
and Secretary. 

The Important institutions of the Sisters of 

*From material furnished by the Sisters of Providence of Charity, 
Convent of Our Lady of Victory, "Brightside," Holyoke, Massachusetts. 






. 




A SISTER OF PROVIDENCE OF CHARITY 
Convent of Our Lady of Victory, "Brightside," Holyoke, Massachusetts 



OF CHARITY 271 

Providence of Charity in the Diocese of Spring- 
field are: Holy Family Institute, (Boys' Orphan 
Asylum), Bethlehem Infant Asylum, Beaven-Kel- 
ly Home, (for Aged Men), Mt. St. Vincent, (Girls' 
Orphan Asylum), House of Providence Hospital 
and Father Harkin's Home for Aged Women, all 
in Holyoke, Mass. St. Luke's Home for Working 
Girls and the Mercy Hospital in Springfield, Mass., 
St. Vincent Hospital and St. Vincent Home for 
Aged Men and Women, Worcester, Mass., and 
Greylock Rest Sanitarium, Adams, Mass. 



THE POOR CLARES* 

1875 

Religious Orders being an integral part of the 
Church, naturally share in her trials and tri- 
umphs. Whenever the Church has been assailed, 
religious orders usually have had to bear the 
brunt of the battle; and the greatest glories of the 
Church have, as a rule, been due to the influence 
of religious orders. 

But religious orders are also affected in a way 
peculiar to themselves. That extraordinary fer- 
vor which attended the beginning and the dissem- 
ination of every religious institute is generally of 
short duration. After a while these institutes set- 
tle down to a certain groove, traced out and 
hedged in by numerous precepts and regulations; 
but while this may be a necessity to safeguard 
the individual, it not seldom serves to depress 

*Especially prepared from material furnished by the Poor Clares, 
Monastery of Poor Clares, West Park, Ohio, and the Poor Clares, Monas- 
tery of St. Clare, Omaha, Nebraska. 



272 THE POOR CLARES 

and hamper the action of the entire body. Again, 
religious orders, just like individuals, have their 
periods of fervor and also their times of remiss- 
ness. Sometimes, too, they may, on account of 
particular circumstances, deviate from their orig- 
inal plan and purpose, without, however, entirely 
losing their character of usefulness. 

The Order of the Poor Clares has had its own 
trials and difficulties. Revolutions and persecu- 
tions have at times decimated its monasteries. 
Sometimes the Religious were suppressed whole- 
sale in some particular country. Their monas- 
teries were confiscated, and the Sisters exiled 
from the land after being subjected to many 
hardships and privations. Some were even put 
to death, or died in consequence of the suffering 
they had to endure. Yet, in spite of every ob- 
stacle, the Order lives and flourishes at the pres- 
ent day throughout the Catholic world, animated 
with the same spirit as that which permeated the 
holy foundress, Saint Clare, nearly eight cen- 
turies ago. 

About the year 1792, some Poor Clares, driven 
from France by the Revolution, came to the 
United States and took up their abode at George- 
town, D. C; here they opened a school for their 
support but they were unable to establish a per- 
manent institution, and upon the death of the Ab- 
bess, her successor sold the property which they 
had purchased and with her companions re- 
turned to their European Convent. 

The permanent establishment of the Poor 
Clares in this country is due to the courage and 
perseverance of two noble ladies of Rome, sisters 
by nature as well as by religion, Sister Maria 
Maddalena Bentivoglio and Sister Maria Costanza 



THE POOR CLARES 273 

Bentivoglio. Their parents were Domenico Bent- 
ivoglio, Count of Bologna, and Angela Sandred, 
a descendent from a noble French family. 

Count Domenico fought in the wars under Na- 
poleon I., holding the rank of a colonel. After 
Napoleon's defeat, he returned to his palatial 
residence in Bologna, but soon afterwards re- 
moved with his family to Rome, at the request of 
Pope Gregory XVI. Count Domenico also served 
as general in the Papal army and did service 
both under Pope Gregory XVI. and Pope Pius IX. 
He passed through eventful days and many in- 
teresting facts could be related concerning his 
career. 

The two eldest daughters, Agatha and Paola, 
were placed for their education in the Monastery 
of the Poor Clares Urbanists of San Silvestro-in- 
capite, founded by Blessed Margaret Colonna, 
When the Blessed Madeleine Barat, foundress of 
the Society of the Sacred Heart, came to Rome to 
open a house of her Society, she lived for a time 
in this Monastery of San Silvestro. Here she 
made the acquaintance of the Bentivoglio family, 
whose intimate friend she ever afterward re- 
mained. 

As soon as Blessed Madeleine Barat succeeded 
in establishing her Society in the Monastery of 
the Trinita de' Monti, Agatha hastened to join the 
Society and her sisters were sent there for their 
education. 

Out of the seven daughters in this noble family 
two contracted marriage; the other live became 
religious, two entering the Society of the Sacred 
Heart, one joining the Oblates of San Francesca 
Romana, and two, namely Annetta and Costanza, 
became Poor Clares. 

18 



274 THE POOR CLARES 

In 1875, in obedience to His Holiness, Pope Pius 
IX., and the Most Rev. Father General of the Or- 
der, these two sisters — Sister Maria Madalena 
Bentivoglio and Sister Maria Costanza Benti- 
voglio — left their Monastery of San Lorenzo- 
in-Panisperna in Rome to come to the United 
States. 

Their history, from their arrival in New York, 
October 11, 1875, is one of many sufferings, trials 
and disappointments. Having been especially 
recommended to the care of the American Pro- 
vincial of the Franciscan Fathers, he arranged 
for the Sisters to go to Cleveland, Ohio, from 
New Orleans — whither they had gone while 
awaiting a diocesan location for their first Amer- 
ican foundation. 

Some months after their establishment in 
Cleveland — in compliance with the request of the 
Franciscan Provincial — plans were made for the 
arrival of a band of Poor Clares, from the Com- 
munity at Dusseldorf, Germany. The intention of 
the Rev. Provincial was the fusion of the two 
Communities and the conforming of the Italian 
Sisters to the customs and usages of the new- 
comers. 

On December 15, 1877, the new Community — 
with Mother M. Veronica as Abbess and Mother 
Josepha as Vicaress — arrived in Cleveland and at 
once became established at the Monastery of the 
Poor Clares from Italy. 

The following year witnessed the separation of 
the Poor Clares in Cleveland. Through the gen- 
erosity of one of this country's noblest men — Mr. 
John A. Creighton of Omaha, Nebraska — the Ital- 
ian Sisters were enabled to found, in the city of 
Omaha, a Monastery of their Order, according to 



THE POOR CLARES 275 

the primitive observance of the First Rule of St. 
Clare. Mr. Creighton, assisted by his equally noble 
and zealous wife, neglected nothing that would 
tend to the thorough and comfortable establish- 
ment of the Poor Clares in Omaha. 

From this Monastery of St. Clare— located at 
Hamilton Ave., and 29th Street, in that city — two 
other important foundations have been made; in 
1885, the Monastery of St. Clare, Magazine St. 
and Henry Clay Ave., New Orleans, La., was es- 
tablished, and in 1897 was established the Mon- 
astery of St. Clare, Kentucky Avenue, Evansville, 
Indiana. 

From the Monastery at Cleveland, was founded, 
in 1893, the Monastery of the Poor Clares at the 
corner of 53rd and Laflin Sts., in Chicago, Illi- 
nois. The Most Rev. Patrick A. Feehan — first 
Archbishop of Chicago — came in person to dedi- 
cate this Monastery on its completion, thereby 
showing his pleasure in having in his Archdiocese 
a Community whose prayers are all-powerful at 
the Throne of the Almighty. 

In the year 1906, the Poor Clares in Evansville 
established a Monastery in Boston, Mass., at 38 
Bennett Street. 

In 1909, from the Monastery in Boston was 
founded the Monastery of St. Clare at Borden- 
town, New Jersey. 

The Poor Clares throughout the world observe 
the Rule drawn up by St. Clare, and approved by 
Pope Innocent IV., August 9, 1253. 

Their life is contemplative, a life of reparation 
and intercession for the needs of Holy Church 
and particularly for the conversion of sinners. 
The hours of the day and part of the night are de- 
voted to prayer, and manual labor; the Sisters 



276 SISTERS OF ST. FRANCIS OF 

rise at midnight for the recitation of the Divine 
Office; they have the daily Exposition of the 
Blessed Sacrament for a certain time, and often 
during the midnight hour. The Poor Glares do 
all kinds of Church work, vestments, embroidery 
and the making of altar breads for Missions and 
Churches. 

The Rule requires of the candidate to the Order 
one year of novitiate, after which Perpetual Vows 
of Poverty, Chastity, Obedience and Enclosure 
could be made. But experience having proved 
the necessity of a longer period of probation, 
many houses of the Order addressed petitions to 
this effect to the Holy See with the result that 
the length of time of probation now differs some- 
what in the different monasteries. 

The Monasteries of the Poor Clares are each 
independent, each having its own Abbess and its 
own novitiate. Some are under the jurisdiction 
of the Father General of the Franciscan Order, 
the others under the bishop of the diocese. 

The habit of the Poor Clares is of gray frieze — 
a mixture of natural brown and white — made in 
tunic form with a cord of gray linen worn as a 
girdle. 



SISTERS OF ST. FRANCIS, DU- 
BUQUE, IOWA * 

1875 

The Sisters of St. Francis came to this vicinity 
from Germany in 1875, under the direction of 
Mother Xaveria. The members went first to Iowa 



*Especially prepared by the Sisters of St. Francis, Convent of 
St. Francis Assisium, Dubuque, Iowa. 




A POOR CLARE 
Monastery of St. Clara, Omaha, Nebraska 



DUBUQUE, IOWA 277 

City, where they sojourned for three years min- 
istering to the wants of the needy and caring for 
destitute children. 

In 1878 the Congregation removed to its home 
in Dubuque. Here the Sisters have their Mother- 
House, where novices pursue the studies fitting 
them for their lofty vocation and where aged Sis- 
ters find a home when enfeebled by age and their 
work. The Community numbers now nearly 400 
Sisters. 

Connected with the mother-house and with its 
site on the same grounds is St. Mary's Orphan 
Asylum, a diocesan institution, admitting the chil- 
dren of the diocese, and has normally from 200 to 
225 children under its shelter. The little ones 
who are bereft of the care of their parents find 
the kindness and loving care they seek among the 
twenty-four Sisters who are devoting their lives 
to the noble cause. When the children leave St. 
Mary's Asylum, they are placed in good Chris- 
tian homes. Those who are half orphans are 
given to their surviving parents or to relatives 
should they desire to guard them. 

St. Francis' Home for the aged, with its near 
two hundred inmates, is situated west of the 
mother-house and the Orphan Asylum. It is three 
stories and a basement high and thoroughly 
equipped and well designed for a home for the 
aged. 

Mary of the Angel's Home is also conducted by 
the Sisters of St. Francis. It is a home for work- 
ing girls who are employed in the city; and also a 
refuge for strange girls who come from other 
places seeking employment. It was founded 
twenty years ago in the old home of Bishop 
Loras. Seven years later it was transferred to the 



278 SISTERS OF ST. FRANCIS OF 

J. P. Farley residence on Bluff Street. Since that 
time two large additions have been erected and 
many other improvements made. 

Besides these institutions, the Sisters of St. 
Francis conduct the St. Anthony's Home for Or- 
phans at Sioux City, The Immaculate Conception 
Academy, Dubuque, and forty-two mission 
schools with an attendance of nearly seven thou- 
sand pupils. 



SISTERS OF ST. FRANCIS OF PER- 
PETUAL ADORATION* 

1875 

Six Sisters of the Order of Saint Francis left 
their native country and convent home at Olpe, 
Westphalia, and arrived in the United States De- 
cember 12, 1875. Of these Sister Clara was Su- 
perioress. 

Soon after their arrival in this country, the Sis- 
ters — in response to an invitation of the late Rt. 
Rev. Joseph Dwenger, D. D., Bishop of the dio- 
cese of Ft. Wayne, Indiana — settled in LaFayette, 
Ind. 

Unknown and without means they began their 
work of charity, and for this purpose rented an 
unoccupied building in the neighborhood of St. 
Boniface's Church. This building served them 
for a dwelling and a hospital until October of 
1876. 

The first helping hand was extended to them by 
the late Albert Wagner of that city. He donated 
to them two vacant lots on Hartford and Four- 



*Especially prepared from the History of the Catholic Church in 
Indiana. 



PERPETUAL ADORATION 279 

teenth Streets, here was at once erected the first 
of the present block of buildings composing the 
hospital and convent of the Sisters. 

The efforts of the Sisters, in behalf of the sick 
and unfortunate, were soon appreciated and in 
the course of time accommodations were added 
to the hospital proper and to the Sisters' dwell- 
ing, as necessity demanded and as the means 
were obtained. In 1896, the contract was let for 
a new hospital building — now one of the finest 
and best equipped hospitals in the State. 

The new hospital had become an absolute ne- 
cessity on account of the great number of pa- 
tients applying for admission. With the growth 
of LaFayotte, applications of destitute sick per- 
sons became very numerous; for it must be borne 
in mind that the Sisters, desirous of doing "the 
greatest good to the greatest number," receive 
patients without distinction as to creed, national- 
ity, race or sex, and without regard to the ability 
of paying fees. The same is true when the Sis- 
ters are called to nurse patients in their own 
homes; they exact no remuneration, but of course 
expect to meet with the regard due to their char- 
acter as ladies and religious workers. They 
eschew controversies on religious topics but re- 
ply to candid inquiries, and do not hesitate to 
advise Catholics to attend to their spiritual duties 
in case of dangerous illness. When patients are 
not Catholics the Sisters ask if they wish to see 
their own clergyman, and send for him when so 
requested. Attempts at proselytism are not coun- 
tenanced. 

The convent of St. Francis, connected with St. 
Elizabeth's hospital, and occupying the older 
buildings fronting on Hartford Street, is the 



280 SISTERS OF ST. FRANCIS 

Mother-house of the Sisters of this Community in 
the United States, and the place of novitiate and 
training school. 

In April, 1907, the Constitutions of the Congre- 
gation received the definite approval of the Holy 
See. 

From six members in 1875, the Community now 
numbers nearly six hundred. The Sisters have 
charge of hospitals, orphanages and homes for 
the aged in many other cities in Indiana, in Ohio, 
Tennessee, Kansas, Nebraska and Colorado. 



LADIES OF THE SACRED HEART 
OF MARY* 

1877 

The Order of Les Dames du Sacre Coeur de 
Marie, Vierge Immaculee, was founded at Beziers, 
Herault, France in 1849, by the Venerated Pere 
Pierre-Jean-Antoine Gailhac and by Madame 
Cure. The Venerated Foundress was the First 
Superior General. 

The end of the Order is the education of young 
girls of all classes. The Holy Rule and Constitu- 
tions were approved bv Popes Pius IX. and Leo 
XIII. 

The Dames du Sacre Coeur de Marie are semi- 
cloistered. They have houses in various parts of 
France, Portugal, Spain, England, Ireland, Bra- 
zil and the United States. 

The Novitiate for America is established at 
"Marymount," Tarrytown-on-Hudson, N. Y. 

*Furnished by the Ladies of the Sacred Heart of Mary, "Mary- 
mount," Tarrytown-on-Hudson, New York. 



DOMINICAN SISTERS 281 

The Cardinal-Protector of the Order is His Em- 
inence Cardinal Vanutelli. 



DOMINICAN SISTERS, HUNT'S 
POINT, N. Y. * 

1880 

In the year 1880, on the 24th of June, four 
Dominican nuns left the Monastery of the Most 
Blessed Sacrament at Oullins, near Lyons, 
France, for America, to found a Convent of their 
order at Newark, New Jersey. 

An invitation of long standing from the Rt. 
Rev. Michael Augustine Corrigan, then Bishop of 
Newark, was only awaiting the hour when the 
community at Oullins felt it could give the neces- 
sary subjects to establish a Monastery of strictly 
cloistered, contemplative life, with the Perpetual 
Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament. 

After a prosperous journey, the Sisters reached 
Newark on the sixth of July and received the 
warm-hearted hospitality of the Sisters of Char- 
ity at Seton Hall College, until the temporary 
house secured for them at Newark was ready for 
occupancy. On the feast of St. Martha, the 
Blessed Sacrament being placed in their little 
chapel, the four nuns, with one lay sister as pos- 
tulant, were enclosed and began the exercise of 
their regular religious observances. These ob- 
servances were the object of much comment and 
of sad forebodings. 

Bound by rule to such austerities as rising at 

*Especially prepared by the Dominican Nuns, Corpus Christi Mon- 
astery, Hunt's Point, New York. 



282 DOMINICAN SISTERS 

midnight for the Matins of the Divine Office and 
Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament, to per- 
petual abstinence, long fasts, the use of board 
beds, strict enclosure, the endurance of cold, the 
life of the nuns seemed to defy even the most 
sanguine hopes in a land of comfort such as ours. 
But the strong arm of God upheld the little flock, 
and the answer to fear and misgiving was the 
rapid growth of the seedling planted with faith 
and confidence by the weak hands to whom it 
had been confided. 

At the end of the second year, the little com- 
munity numbering fifteen, it was deemed prudent 
and necessary to think of a permanent settle- 
ment. Land was secured in a healthy location 
and the erection of a regular Monastery was 
begun. In April, 1884, the community moved to 
its new home, the Monastery of Saint Dominic. 
This Monastery was built upon the plan of the 
monasteries of the Old World, having its arched 
cloister, traditional well, the vault, resting place 
of the departed, and its double grilles separating 
from the outer world those consecrated to God's 
special service. Difficulties and struggles there 
were, but the evidence of Providential support 
was never wanting. 

At the end of nine years the Monastery was 
filled to its capacity, and His Grace, the Most 
Rev. Archbishop Corrigan — to whose faith, piety 
and courage the Monastery of Newark owed its 
existence — claimed for his Archepiscopal City a 
foundation of this Dominican Congregation. 

The erection of the New York Monastery was 
begun May 26, 1889. Seven Sisters came from 
the Newark Monastery and settled in a temporary 
house at Hunt's Point, on the East side of New 




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OF HUNT'S POINT 283 

York, above the Harlem River. Upon completion 
of the building known as Corpus Ghristi Monas- 
tery, the Sisters at once entered it and resumed 
the life of the cloister. 

Rapid again was the expansion of contempla- 
tive life on this new soil. When in the Fall of 
1890 the Sisters took possession of this Monas- 
tery, they numbered twenty-one in the commu- 
nity, and as time went on the Sisters were joined 
by many others to toil, with love and devoted- 
ness, for their support, in a life all given to God, 
through the chanting of the Divine Office, adora- 
tion, prayer, penance and sacrifice. 

In the Spring of 1906, the Monastery of Saint 
Dominic, at Newark, had the happiness of send- 
ing out a group of Sisters to establish a founda- 
tion at Detroit, Michigan. The budding of this 
Community has been most promising; the clergy 
and laity of Detroit evince a vivid spirit of faith 
and love towards the Blessed Sacrament, perpet- 
ually exposed in their midst for the first time in 
the history of the diocese. 

It should be stated here that the Monastery of 
the Blessed Sacrament at Oullins, France, whence 
the first Sisters came to America, inherits its rule 
and observances directly from the Monastery at 
Prouille, founded by St. Dominic himself in 1206. 
St. Dominic, fired with burning zeal for the salva- 
tion of souls, gathered under his guidance a few 
pious and devoted souls destined to consume 
their lives in prayer and penance, for the sin- 
ning world, and especially for the conversion of 
infidels. To these he confided the aspirations of 
his own soul, and framed for them a mode of life 
which has been handed down to us in all the pur- 
ity of its first saintly inspirations. 



284 FRANCISCAN SISTERS 

In the Monasteries of the Dominican Nuns the 
labors, as well as the rules, coming to them 
through the ages are continued. The nuns jeal- 
ously cultivate the art of illumination, they work 
on parchment as did the religious of the Middle 
Ages. To their art work in this branch they unite 
the making of the finest ecclesiastical embroid- 
eries in gold and silk. It may be said truly that 
their toil is of love, so indeed are their lives as 
offered to Jesus in the Adorable Sacrament of 
the Altar. 



FRANCISCAN SISTERS* 

(For Colored Missions.) 

1881 

The Franciscan Sisters from Mill Hill, England, 
sent a band of Sisters from their community to 
the United States in 1881. 

The Sisters became established in Baltimore, 
Maryland, and at once devoted themselves to 
their work, which is entirely among the colored 
people. 

In 1895, the Convent of Our Lady and St. Fran- 
cis, at 2226 Maryland Avenue, Baltimore, was es- 
tablished as the American novitiate for the Con- 
gregation. 

*History of the Catholic Church in the United States. 



SISTERS OF NOTRE DAME 285 



SISTERS OF NOTRE DAME DE BON 
SECOURS * 

1882 

The Community of Notre Dame de Bon Se- 
cours was founded in Troyes, (Aute) France, in 
the year 1840 by the Rev. Abbe Paul Sebastiane 
Millet, Canon of that diocese. 

The special work of the Institute is the nursing 
of the sick in their own homes. The Sisters are 
graduate nurses and take charge of a patient re- 
gardless of the nature of the sickness, whether or 
not contagious, or of the mind or body or both. 

In establishing the Community, the venerable 
founder would have no stipulated charge for the 
Sisters' services, the payment for their service to 
be trusted to the honor and conscience of the re- 
cipient. For the poor, services would be entirely 
without charge. 

In 1882, through the mediation of Mrs. S. Ward 
of New York, who traveling in Europe, became 
acquainted with the Sisters and their work, a 
band of Sisters of Bon Secours arrived in New 
York. 

His Eminence, the late Cardinal McCloskey, 
had given his full approbation to the coming of 
the Sisters and received them under his paternal 
care. 

On the 30th of August, 1888, the Most Rev. 
Archbishop Corrigan blessed the corner stone of 
the chapel in the first American home of the Bon 
Secours, at 1195 Lexington Avenue, New York 

*From the Sisters of the Bon Secours, 1195 Lexington Avenue, 
New York, N. Y. 



286 SISTERS OF ST. JOSEPH 

City. His Grace continued to give the new Com- 
munity the encouragement and protection his il- 
lustrious predecessor had given to the Institute. 

Among those taking an active interest in the 
welfare of the Community, the late Father John 
Daly, S. J., was most kind and ever aided the Sis- 
ters in their work. 

While the work of the Bon Secours in this 
country has so far been confined to New York, 
their Institutes in Europe are many, throughout 
France, Italy, England, Belgium and Switzerland. 



SISTERS OF ST. JOSEPH OF PEACE * 

1883. 

The > Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph 
of Peace of Nollingham, England, sent a band of 
their Sisters to the United States in 1883. An 
American Mother-house and novitiate was at 
once established by them in Englewood, New 
Jersey. 

The Sisters have charge of orphanages, homes 
for working girls, hospitals and schools. 

St. Joseph's Home for the Blind, in Jersey City, 
New Jersey, is conducted by the Sisters of this 
congregation. It is the only Catholic institution 
in the country for the blind. 

*History of the Catholic Church in the United States. 



SISTERS OF NAZARETH 287 



SISTERS OF THE MOST HOLY 
FAMILY OF NAZARETH* 

1885 

In the year 1875, Mary Frances Siedliska, a dis- 
tinguished Polish woman of noble qualities and 
rare virtues, bidding farewell to the world with 
all its promises and hopes, journeyed to the city 
of Rome, that she might there develop and realize 
the cherished idea of giving herself entirely to 
the service of God. 

Inspired with a desire of a religious life and 
with the establishment of a Polish community of 
Sisters, Mother Siedliska, after a visit to the ven- 
erable Pontiff, Pope Pius IX., from whom she 
received a blessing for herself and the work she 
was destined to perform, left Rome for Lourdes 
where she remained for an entire year, devoting 
her time to contemplation and to prayer. After 
such a preparation she returned to Rome and 
there purchased a small house in the Via Meru- 
lana, in which she and a few companions com- 
menced the religious life. These first representa- 
tives of the new Community consisted exclusively 
of Polish ladies. 

During this period in Rome, Mother Siedliska 
wrote the Constitutions of the Congregation and 
the proposed manner of life, occupations and 
rules, and planned the habit with which the Sis- 
ters were to be attired. 

After the example of the Holy Family of Naza- 
reth, the Community was to lead both a contem- 

*Especially prepared from material furnished by the Sisters of the 
Most Holy Family of Nazareth, Desplaines, Illinois. 



288 SISTERS OF THE MOST 

plative and active life, to pray and to labor, to 
further the advancement of its members in vir- 
tue and holiness. The rules of the Sisters of 
Nazareth are, in various points, similar to those 
of other communities, and were instituted ac- 
cording to the wise rule of St. Augustine, which 
up to today serves for so many communities, of 
men and women, as the basis of their religious 
life. 

The principal or the so-called Mother-house is 
still located in Rome; there the Sisters make their 
Novitiate and there also resides the General Su- 
perioress of the Congregation. In 1881, their pre- 
paratory work being completed, Mdther Siedliska, 
with her companion Sisters, departed from Rome 
and arrived in the heart of Poland — the old ven- 
erable city of Cracow — the site of their first la- 
bors on Polish soil. 

At Cracow the work of the Sisters progressed 
slowly but constantly, soon new fields of activity 
opened for the zealous workers. In 1889 a board- 
ing school was established for young ladies pre- 
paring to be teachers, this was followed by the 
opening in 1890 of Saint Hedwig's Institute, which 
extends its charity to girls who can earn their 
livelihood by sewing and manual labor. Some 
time later a house was opened in Lemberg, which 
educational institution has the rights and the 
privileges of the public grammar schools. Houses 
were opened in Waldovic, Vienna and London, 
in the latter city the Sisters conduct an Academy 
and also have charge of three government schools. 
A house was opened in Paris but was closed dur- 
ing the recent persecutions in France against Re- 
ligious Orders. 

In 1885, Mother Siedliska, realizing the 



HOLY FAMILY OF NAZARETH 289 

enormous work to be done amongst the Polish 
emigrants in the United States, and that the Po- 
lish Communities already laboring in the vast 
field needed help, concluded to send Sisters to 
America. 

Twelve came, with Mother Siedliska herself in 
charge. Chicago, the center of Polish emigration, 
was chosen as the first domicile of the Sisters, and 
under the kind auspices of the Fathers of the Res- 
urrection, they at once took charge of two Polish 
schools and an orphanage. From Chicago, the 
Sisters commenced to extend their services toother 
Polish settlements, making a specialty of parochial 
school work. Providence evidently sanctioned 
these small and humble beginnings, for in a short 
space of time many excellent young ladies sought 
admission to the Community. 

An American Novitiate was established in Des- 
plaines, Illinois, adjacent to Chicago. This No- 
vitiate, which is a spacious and completely mod- 
ern building, has been erected on ground donated 
to the Sisters of Nazareth by His Grace, Arch- 
bishop Quigley of Chicago. The gift comprises 
an extensive plat of sixty-two acres of beautifully 
cultivated land and is situated on a most pic- 
turesque site near the banks of the Desplaines 
River. 

The manner of the interior life of the Sisters 
of the Most Holy Family of Nazareth differs lit- 
tle from that of other religious orders. The can- 
didates are obliged to undergo one year of pro- 
bation and two years of novitiate. After complet- 
ing the novitiate, the Sisters take the yearly 
simple vows which they renew annually for seven 
years, when simple perpetual vows are taken. At 
her investiture, each Sister receives the name of 

19 



290 SISTERS OF NAZARETH 

Mary, in honor of the Blessed Virgin, and in addi- 
tion is given the name of some patron saint. 

The urgent need of the Sisters' services in pa- 
rochial schools became so great that many 
schools had to be refused, owing to the lack of 
a sufficient number of Sisters for all the missions. 

The Community has prospered in the United 
States, its membership increasing so that today 
it has outgrown the Community in the Old World. 
The foundress, having returned to Rome, visited 
America three times to observe the work of the 
Sisters and to open new houses. 

Besides their parochial schools throughout the 
country and their magnificent Mother-house and 
Novitiate in Desplaines, Illinois, the Sisters have, 
in Chicago, a celebrated academy; lately this in- 
stitution was made into a boarding school for 
young ladies and is one of the first of the kind 
organized in the United States. St. Mary's of 
Nazareth Hospital in Chicago is also in charge of 
the Sisters of Nazareth; it is one of the finest and 
most modern of hospitals, caring for the poor 
as well as those with means. In the State of 
Pennsylvania, two orphanages are conducted by 
the Sisters, — one at Emsworth and another at 
Conshehocken. 

In 1906, twenty years after the foundation of 
the Community, the Holy See issued a Decree of 
Praise for the Sisters, as a result of the services 
rendered the Holy Church by them. This was 
the initial step for the Papal approbation of the 
Community, its constitutions and its rules. The 
final approbation was received July 31, 1909, from 
His Holiness, Pope Pius X. 

When, on November 21, 1902, Mother Siedliska 
was called by her Divine Master for her well de- 



ADORERS OF THE PRECIOUS BLOOD 291 

served reward, she had the consolation of know- 
ing her Community was well established in the 
Old World and in the New World, and that the 
Community was performing the grandest and 
noblest work in the cause of religion, especially 
in behalf of the children of her own native land — 
the education of the Polish Catholic youth. 



SISTERS ADORERS OF THE MOST 
PRECIOUS BLOOD * 

1889 

The Institute of the Sisters Adorers of the 
Precious Blood was founded on September 14, 
1861, at St. Hyacinthe, Quebec, Canada, by Miss 
Aurelie Caouette, known in religion as Mother 
Catherine-Aurelie of the Precious Blood. This 
saintly religious had in the execution of her great 
work the hearty approval and personal co-opera- 
tion of Rt. Rev. Joseph La Rocque, Bishop of St. 
Hyacinthe, and of Monsignor J. S. Raymond, Do- 
mestic Prelate to His Holiness, and, for many 
years, Superior of the Seminary and Vicar-Gen- 
eral of the Diocese. 

Mother Catherine was remarkable for her mod- 
esty, her lovable simplicity, lively faith and love 
of prayer; the Precious Blood was her life, her 
strength — and the salvation of souls her greatest 
ambition. 

Three young ladies of St. Hyacinthe were asso- 
ciated with the Foundress in her work, namely: 
Sister Immaculate Conception (Miss Elizabeth 

*Especially prepared by the Sisters Adorers of the Precious Blood, 
Monastery of the Precious Blood, Montavilla. Station, Portland* Oregon. 



292 SISTERS ADORERS OF THE 

Hamilton), Sister Sophie of the Incarnation (Miss 
Sophie Raymond), and Mother Euphrasia of St. 
Joseph (Miss Euphrasia Caouette), cousin of the 
Foundress. 

It was only after many and severe trials that 
the Community was established; contemplative as 
well as cloistered, its essential object is to espe- 
cially honor the Precious Blood of Jesus, and to 
make reparation to It for the neglect of those 
who, forgetting the price of their souls, fail in 
gratitude to Him Who shed for us every drop of 
His Adorable Blood. The nuns spend their lives 
in penance, prayer and sacrifices, which are of- 
fered to appease God's anger and to obtain the 
salvation of souls. At midnight, they rise and 
spend an hour before the Blessed Sacrament, 
atoning for the sins of the day just gone, and so- 
liciting blessings for the day then dawning. These 
religious offer earnest supplications to Heaven 
for poor sinners, at the very hour when God is 
most offended. They take upon themselves the 
punishment due to others, and chastise their own 
bodies, that God may spare and convert those 
whose hearts are turned from Him. 

The Rules of the Institute received their final 
approbation on October 20, 1896, from his Holi- 
ness, Leo XIII. Seldom has an Institute been so 
highly honored while still so young in years, be- 
ing then only in its thirty-fifth year, and during 
the lifetime of its Foundress. All of the Monaste- 
ries in other dioceses constitute so many houses 
dependent upon the jurisdiction of the local or- 
dinaries, and are ruled by the same form of gov- 
ernment as the first house of the Institute. Each 
Monastery has its own Novitiate and receives its 
own subjects. The postulate ordinarily lasts a 




SISTER ADORER OF THE PRECIOUS BLOOD 
Monastery of the Precious Blood, Montavilla Sta., Portland, Oregon 



r MOST PRECIOUS BLOOD 293 

year, and the noviceship a full year from the time 
of the clothing, after which the Choir and Lay 
Novices take simple perpetual vows, and the 
Touriere Novices the annual vows. 

The Choir Sisters wear a white serge habit, in 
honor of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, 
Queen of Virgins; a long red scapular, which re- 
calls to them without ceasing the Man of Sorrows 
shedding all His Blood; a small red cross is sewn 
upon their black veil, and they wear a cincture of 
red cloth with a pendant upon which the instru- 
ments of the Passion are painted in white. Fas- 
tened to their cincture is a large black rosary, 
with a skull at one end, and at the other a medal 
representing the Blessed Sacrament and the Im- 
maculate Conception. The guimpe and band is 
of white linen. For the receiving of Holy Com- 
munion, as well as on other solemn occasions, 
they wear a long white serge mantle. A silver 
ring is worn on the ring finger of the right hand; 
and a silver cross containing relics hangs upon 
their breast, as a shield and perpetual souvenir 
of the virtues of the saints, their combats and 
their triumphs. The three mottoes engraven on 
the cross: "Precieux Sang," "Marie Immaculee," 
"Jesus Hostie," form an epitome of their vocation. 

The costume of the Lay Sisters differs from that 
of the Choir Sisters in that their habit is black. 
The Novices wear the same costume as the Pro- 
fessed with the exception of the cross and the 
ring, which are given to them only at their pro- 
fessions, and of the veil, which is of white muslin. 

The Touriere Sisters wear a black habit with 
a cape; a white fluted cap, a black veil, a cincture 
of red cloth, and a rosary, cross and ring. To go 
out they wear a black mantle, and a black bon- 
net lined with white linen. 



294 ADORERS OF THE PRECIOUS BLOOD 

It is an impressive sight to see the Sisters in 
the choir at midnight praying for the sinning 
world. All wear for the "Midnight Hour of Repa- 
ration," a long red tunic, similar in form to that 
in which Our Lord is represented in pictures of 
His Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. 

The Sisters rise at five A. M. Their principal 
daily exercises are: Meditation twice a day, 
Holy Mass, The Office, Particular and General 
Examen, Visit to the Blessed Sacrament, Spiritual 
Reading, Way of the Gross, Rosary, and the Last 
Prayers of the day. The Sisters replace one an- 
other, hour by hour, for the Adoration of the 
Precious Blood. Time not spent in prayer is 
given by the Sisters to work. They make all 
kinds of church vestments and articles of piety; 
they mold and paint statues and crucifixes, and 
mount rosaries, etc. All work is performed in 
perfect silence and in a spirit of penance. Two 
hours of recreation is allowed. The washing, 
ironing, and all the heavier work of the house- 
hold, is performed by the Sisters in common, 
Choir as well as Lay Sisters. 

A Saint has said: "The cells of the monks 
united in the desert were like a hive of bees. 
There each had in his own hands the wax of" 
labor, and in his mouth the honey of psalms and 
prayers." Thus it is in our own day in the Monas- 
tery of the Precious Blood, for silence is only* 
broken during work to recite aloud a short prayer 
every fifteen minutes. 

In 1889 the Institute established a Monastery of 
the Precious Blood, at Fifty-fourth Street and 
Fort Hamilton Parkway, Brooklyn, New York. In 
1892 was opened the Monastery of the Precious 
Blood, Montavilla Station, Portland, Oregon, and 



MISSION HELPERS 295 

in 1899 a Monastery was opened at No. 555 Union 
Street, Manchester, New Hampshire. 



THE MISSION HELPERS OF THE 
SACRED HEART* 

1890 

The work of the Institute began in Baltimore, 
the first house being opened in 1890. The Very 
Reverend Provincial of the Josephites feeling the 
need of Sisters to help him in the missionary la- 
bors of the Society, found a few ladies who de- 
sired to devote themselves to the work, and, after 
usual probation, gave them the habit and later 
allowed them to pronounce the simple vows of 
religion, he being appointed their Ecclesiastical 
Superior. Then began the life which they now 
live. 

The work was missionary and catechetical. 
The Sisters had catechism classes at the convent, 
which was then one house in the row of five they 
now occupy; they also had sewing classes in the 
evening; they went about the various hospitals 
.and charitable afod penal institutions, looking up 
Catholic negroes who needed instruction or en- 
couragement to attend their religious duties; and 
visited their poor homes to prepare the sick for 
the sacraments, or to rescue children from vicious 
surroundings. 

As the community grew larger the missionary 
work' broadened out and took in the needy of 
all nationalities. It was at this time that the 



*Especially prepared by the Mission Helpers of the Sacred Heart, 
416 West Biddle Street, Baltimore, Maryland. 



296 THE MISSION HELPERS 

Sisters began going into the country to teach cate- 
chism in rural churches. An immense amount of 
good has been done in this way and much needed 
assistance given to the Reverend Pastors, as many 
of them testify. 

In 1897, His Eminence Cardinal Gibbons, moved 
by the needs of the Catholic deaf mutes, placed 
this work in charge of the Institute. A school and 
home for them was opened, the only one in the 
Baltimore Province. 

Houses have since been opened in Trenton, 
N. J., New York City, and in San Juan, Santurce 
and Ponce, Porto Rico. 

The active work of the Institute, as outlined by 
the Constitutions, embraces the keeping of indus- 
trial schools for indigent girls, schools for deaf 
mutes, and day nurseries; teaching catechism and 
giving religious instructions wherever needed; 
visiting the poor in their own homes, and in in- 
stitutions, such as hospitals and alms-houses, and 
preparing the dying for the last sacraments. 

The life of the Mission Helpers of the Sacred 
Heart is one of utmost simplicity. They make 
the three simple vows of religion. Their daily 
Mass, morning and afternoon meditation, spiritual 
reading, visits to the Most Blessed Sacrament and 
vocal prayers, enable them to live the life of God 
in their own soul and support them in the labor 
of love their active life entails. The Mission 
Helper of the Sacred Heart knows that her first 
efforts must be to imbibe into her very soul the 
sweet Spirit of the Heart of Christ. She is aware 
that to be meek and humble of heart is for her a 
double necessity, since without these two virtues, 
so necessary in the instruction of the ignorant, 
and without holiness in her life, her glorious vo- 




MISSION HELPERS OF THE SACRED HEART 
Sacred Heart Convent, Baltimore, Maryland 



OF THE SACRED HEART 297 

cation to help other souls cannot be fulfilled. As 
a true lover and imitator of the Sacred Heart 
she goes forth to do her Divine Master's work 
in His way and for Him. With eyes steadfastly 
fixed upon her Blessed Model she prays and 
labors to save the souls for whom His Heart is 
forever throbbing in the Sacrament of His Love. 

As for the preparation the Sisters are given for 
the work of their vocation, it is, of course, es- 
sential before all else that they be well trained 
in the religious life. After that the work of the 
Institute is easy to accomplish. To this end the 
Constitutions prescribe a novitiate of two years, 
after the candidate has been a postulant six 
months. At the completion of the novitiate, the 
Sisters take the simple vows of poverty, chastity 
and obedience. Thus far these vows have been 
annual. It is now the intention that after five 
years of annual vows, the Sisters shall make per- 
petual vows. There is but one grade in the com- 
munity, which at present numbers forty-seven 
professed Sisters, five novices and three postu- 
lants. There are six houses. Each has some 
special work, but wherever the Mission Helpers 
have a house, missionary work is carried on 
among the poor without regard to race or nation- 
ality, although immigrants are the recipients of 
their special solicitude. 

The Mother-house and novitiate are located at 
the Sacred Heart Convent, 416 West Biddle 
Street, Baltimore, Maryland. 

That there is great need for the work of the 
Institute is amply evidenced by the many urgent 
entreaties received from bishops and priests to 
make foundations. Each one tells that the har- 
vest is great. But, alas! the laborers desired for 



298 SISTERS OF 

it,— the Mission Helpers of the Sacred Heart — are 
few. May the Lord of the harvest send them sub- 
jects to do His blessed work! 



THE SISTERS OF THE BLESSED 

SACRAMENT FOR INDIANS 

AND COLORED PEOPLE * 

1891 

This distinctly American congregation was 
founded in 1891 by Miss Katharine Drexel, daugh- 
ter of the late Francis A. Drexel, one of Philadel- 
phia's leading bankers and financiers. For many 
years Miss Drexel, though born to a life of ease 
and wealth, was not satisfied to give of her abun- 
dance only, she wished to give her entire self to 
the service of God, Whom she felt was calling 
her in a special way to the religious life, but to 
what order, to what special work, she seemed un- 
able to decide. 

For five years, Bishop O'Connor of Omaha, who 
was her spiritual director, had counseled her to 
wait. The Bishop was a man thoroughly devoted 
to the best interests of the Indians, and most anx- 
ious to bring them all into the Fold of Christ. 

Centuries ago the Indians had received the 
Faith from the early Franciscans and Jesuit mis- 
sionaries, but in later days there have been 
apathy and neglect to foster the first growth, and 
where all trace of the truth was not yet lost, it 
was weakened and corrupted. Hence it was that 

*Especially prepared from, material furnished by the Sisters of 
the Blessed Sacrament, Convent of the Blessed Sacrament, St. Eliza- 
beth's, P. O. Maud. Buck's County, Pennsylvania. 



THE BLESSED SACRAMENT 299 

Bishop O'Connor conceived the plan of founding 
a Congregation whose exclusive end and scope 
should be to devote itself, in a spirit of reparation 
for the neglect and wrong of the past, to the 
Christian training of the Indians. Whilst en- 
gaged in developing this idea, there came to him 
a cry for help from the no less neglected negro 
people of the South, whose condition was in many 
respects more deplorable than that of the In- 
dians. 

Both races suffered not only from the neglect 
but from the contempt of the white man; both 
were alike the children of our common Father in 
Heaven, redeemed by the Precious Blood of 
Christ; both claimed with equal right the charity 
of their Catholic brethren. The great heart of 
Bishop O'Connor opened to them without distinc- 
tion, and his plan for improving the condition of 
the Indians widened to embrace the children of 
the negro race. Miss Drexel had, from a child, 
loved the Indian; her earnest prayers were for 
these poor pagans who knew not the good God; 
and when she grew older, and was able to dispose 
of the wealth Providence placed in her possession, 
she built schools and missions among them. The 
major portion of her income was given to sup- 
port the priests and Sisters already at work; she 
was continually striving to establish new centers 
of education in the various reservations. 

Her heart was yearning to embrace the reli- 
gious life, and if she had followed her own de- 
sires she would probably have chosen a contem- 
plative communit}', and not as might have been 
expected an active one. Bishop O'Connor still 
deferred giving Miss Drexel a decision in regard 
to her vocation. All the pent up longing of her 



300 SISTERS OF 

heart was to give herself to God without delay. 
The more she prayed, the greater became the at- 
traction to leave all for Christ. Bishop O'Connor 
had always in mind the new Congregation, and 
fearful of acting hastily, had allowed time to 
elapse before determining to unfold his views 
to Miss Drexel. 

In January, 1887, Miss Drexel and her sister 
were travelling abroad; while in Rome, Leo XIII. 
received them in private audience. Miss Katha- 
rine, in speaking to His Holiness, mentioned the 
great need of missionaries among the Indians, 
and in the simplicity of her soul begged the Holy 
Father to send some devoted missionary commu- 
nities to labor among them. With the smile for 
which he was remarkable lighting up that singu- 
larly clear eye by which he seemed to pierce the 
future, and with a voice the tones of which 
touched the innermost depths of Miss Drexel's 
soul, he replied: "Why not become a missionary 
yourself, my child?" 

Coming at the moment when she was struggling 
between the interior promptings of the Holy 
Spirit and the prohibitory mandate of her direc- 
tor, this seemed, as undoubtedly it was, the voice 
of God Himself. Shortly after this, Bishop O'Con- 
nor announced to Miss Drexel what he believed 
to be the will of God in her regard. Divine Prov- 
idence, he thought, wished to make use of her 
to form the nucleus of a new society for the con- 
version of the Indian and negro races. In obe- 
dience to the direction of Bishop O'Connor, Miss 
Drexel entered the novitiate of the Sisters of Mer- 
cy, in Pittsburg, Penn., May 6, 1889. St. Mary's 
Pittsburg, first House of the Sisters of Mercy in 
the United States, was destined to be the cradle 




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THE BLESSED SACRAMENT 301 

of the new community. It was not long before 
Miss Drexel was joined by others who wished to 
share her mission labors, and with her to pre- 
pare themselves for the work which God was un- 
folding. Under the direction of the saintly 
Mother McAuley, the Sisters of the Blessed Sacra- 
ment began their novitiate. 

This was a decided advantage. The Sisters of 
Mercy in Pittsburg have in vigorous operation all 
the various works of mercy — schools (academical 
and parochial), hospitals, asylums, homes for 
working girls, visitation of prisons, and also the 
sick and dying. To the clear-sighted judgment of 
Bishop O'Connor there could not have been a bet- 
ter community to serve as a nursery for the new 
foundation, since in it the exterior works of the 
active apostolate were fully exemplified, whilst 
the deep, interior spirit of prayer and recollec- 
tion which characterizes the Institute of Mercy 
brings about that harmonious union of the active 
and contemplative elements essential for the ac- 
complishment of the purpose which the new Con- 
gregation of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament 
had in view. 

Sister Katharine, as Miss Drexel was then 
called, was received as a novice in November, 
1889, after the usual six months' probation. In 
May, 1890, Bishop O'Connor died. From the be- 
ginning it had been his wish to place the Institute 
in its infancy under the special care of the late 
Most Reverend Archbishop Ryan, whose zeal and 
devotion to the Indians are so well known, and 
God in calling Bishop O'Connor to Himself at its 
very birth seemed to favor the accomplishment of 
this desire. 

Sister Katharine would indeed have felt un- 



302 SISTERS OF 

able to carry on the work at this time without the 
guidance of Bishop O'Connor, had it not been 
for the reassuring words of Archbishop Ryan, 
who promised her his counsel, protection and aid. 
He more than fulfilled his generous promise. It 
was with a father's tender solicitude that he 
guided the faltering steps of the young commu- 
nity; it was with unwearied patience, despite his 
numerous cares, that he gave his time to its di- 
rection. No work was begun, no rule written, or 
plan formulated without his approval and co- 
operation. Sister Katharine made her first vows 
February 12, 1891. Besides the three vows usual 
in all religious communities, the Sisters pledge 
themselves to work exclusively for the Indian and 
colored races. His Grace Archbishop Ryan ap- 
pointed Mother Katharine first Superioress of the 
new Community, which then numbered thirteen 
members. 

About the same time a site for the Mother-house 
was purchased near Philadelphia, and arrange- 
ments were made for a temporary novitiate at 
"St. Michel," Torresdale, the old homestead of 
the Drexel family. In May, 1891, the Sisters of 
the Blessed Sacrament bade farewell to the Com- 
munity of Mercy, and went forth to lay in the 
silence and solitude of "St. Michel" the founda- 
tions of the new novitiate. 

The question is often asked, why this congre- 
gation has been called Sisters of the Blessed 
Sacrament. The answer is found in the Constitu- 
tions of the Institute, according to which the 
Blessed Sacrament is to be the inspiration of the 
entire varied activities of its members. 

From these rules we learn that in embracing 
the Institute the members are called to consecrate 



THE BLESSED SACRAMENT 303 

themselves body and soul to the service of their 
Eucharistic Lord by a two-fold apostolate of 
prayer and work. They are ever to remember 
that they are for the work, and not the work for 
them. They come to the Institute to do a speci- 
fied work — to bring souls to Jesus in the Eucha- 
rist. In being called to this work they become 
not only the children of God's tenderness, but 
also His co-laborers. Therefore they do not come 
for a life of ease, or self-indulgence, they come as 
our Lord came, to offer themselves as a sacrifice, 
and they must bear in mind that even if they 
were to perform heroic acts of virtue, they would 
be only doing their duty — only conducting them- 
selves as is meet and fitting for the honor of Him 
Who has given Himself entirely to them. 

As the Institute is a missionary Congregation, 
the government of necessity must be general as 
well as central. The Mother-house for the entire 
Community is the Convent of the Blessed Sacra- 
ment, St. Elizabeth's, Cornwells, Bucks County, 
Pennsylvania. 

The Superior-General has to aid her in the ad- 
ministration of the Congregation four Council- 
lors-General — three of whom are, respectively, 
Assistant-General, Treasurer-General, Secretary- 
General and a proportionate number of subordi- 
nate officers, according to the needs of the Con- 
gregation. The rules of the Institute were first 
approved by the Most Reverend Archbishop Ry- 
an in 1893, and received the Decree of Praise 
from the Sacred Congregation Propaganda de 
Fide in 1897; on July 7, 1907, the Constitutions 
were approved by the Holy See. 

By their rule the Sisters of the Blessed Sacra- 
ment may undertake all kinds of educational 



304 SISTERS OF 

works. They may care for orphans, or spiritually 
or corporally destitute children. They may attend 
the sick, by visiting them in their homes, or by 
conducting hospitals. They may shelter desti- 
tute and deserving women. They may establish 
and conduct homes for the aged. They may es- 
tablish and conduct catechetical schools and 
classes outside their own houses; visit the poor in 
order to look after their religious welfare, as also 
to teach them habits of good-living* neatness 
and thrift. They may also visit and instruct the 
inmates of prisons and reformatories. 

To make possible such works and the sacrifices 
demanded for their proper fulfillment, the Sister- 
hood tries and trains its subjects thoroughly. It 
keeps them in the novitiate nearly three years be- 
fore allowing them to enter the active mission- 
ary life. After their first profession, a probation 
of five years is required before the perpetual 
vows are made. 

Since the organization of the Community and 
the erection of the new Mother-house — the corner 
stone of which was laid in 1891 by Archbishop 
Ryan — the Holy Providence House, a Boarding 
School and Home for Colored Children, was es- 
tablished. It serves also as a training school for 
the Sisters, so that they may gain practical experi- 
ence for their future work. 

In 1894, the Sisters opened St. Catharine's 
School, a boarding school for Pueblo Indians, at 
Santa Fe, New Mexico. In 1899, a third founda- 
tion was commenced at Rock Castle, Virginia, a 
boarding and industrial school for colored girls 
of the South. One of the main objects of this 
Institution is to train and educate girls for teach- 
ers. The importance of training colored South- 




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THE BLESSED SACRAMENT 305 

era girls for teachers may be realized when it is 
considered that the public and private schools for 
white and colored in the Southern States are en- 
tirely separate, the work at Rock Castle has been 
singularly blessed, and the Sisters have every 
cause to feel grateful. The Sisters from this house 
also give catechetical instruction at the State 
Farm, an annex of the Richmond penitentiary. 

In 1903, a large boarding school for the Navajo 
Indians of Arizona was opened and called "St. 
Michael's." Nashville, Tennessee, comes next, in 
1905, with an academy for the higher education 
for colored girls, and a preparatory annex school 
opened in 1906. In August of 1906, the Sisters 
went to Carlisle, Penn., where they re-opened a 
colored day school, and arranged to give cate- 
chetical instruction to the Catholic Indians now 
in the Government School there. In the Autumn 
of 1907, a boarding and day school was opened 
for the Indians of the Winnebago Reservation, 
Nebraska. " 

The same Autumn a Mission House and Day 
School was established in the city of Philadel- 
phia. In July of the year, 1912, the Sisters 
opened an establishment in New York City, and 
in August of this same year, in Columbus, Ohio, 
and in Chicago, Illinois, establishments have been 
opened for the continuance of the work of the 
Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, whose mission- 
ary zeal seek not foreign fields for their labors, 
for they realize the harvest is ripe and but await- 
ing the coming of the Harvester's laborers. 

What do the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament 
see in the United States? Within the Fold— 250,- 
000 Negroes and 100,000 Indians to be preserved 
in the Faith; outside the Fo Id— 10,000,000 Negroes 

20 



306 SOCIETY OF THE HELPERS 

and 110,000 pagan Indians "sitting in darkness 
and in the shadow of death." 



LITTLE SISTERS OF THE ASSUMP- 
TION* 

1891 

The Congregation of the "Little Sisters of the 
Assumption" came from Grenelle, Paris, France, 
in the year 1891, and made their first foundation 
in the United States at No. 312 East Fifteenth 
Street, in New York City. In 1900 a second con- 
vent was established in that city at No. 125 West 
One Hundred Thirtieth Street. 

The Sisters gratuitously nurse the sick-poor in 
their own homes, without regard to race, creed or 
nationality. 

*Catholic Directory of 1912. 



THE HELPERS OF THE HOLY 
SOULS * 

1892 

Eugenie Marie Joseph Smet was born in Lille, 
France, March 25, 1825. Her father was a gentle- 
man of good position, her mother — whose maiden 
name was Montdhiver — was connected with a dis- 
tinguished branch of the old French nobility. 

*Especially prepared from material furnished by the Society of 
the Helpers of the Holy Souls, 114 East Eighty-Sixth Street, New York 
City, New York. 



OF THE HOLY SOULS 307 

When Eugenie was eleven years of age she was 
sent to school at the Convent of the Sacred Heart, 
and early showed at all times, with no affected 
solemnity, with no pretense but with simplicity 
and earnestness, the holy ruling passion of her 
heart — love for the Souls in Purgatory — and 
through her own devotion she led many others, 
throughout her school-life and after school-days 
were over, to unite with her in aiding these suf- 
fering souls. 

In her maturity, when she realized the various 
religious orders there were, each with its work, 
she reflected on this that there are "many reli- 
gious communities devoted to the Church Mili- 
tant, but not one to the unseen, yet pressing 
needs of the Church Suffering." 

No sooner had this reflection penetrated her 
than a page of the Divine Will seemed opened 
before her, with unspeakable emotion she read 
in it that she herself was called by God to fill up 
this void. After imparting this impression to the 
rector of the parish and after working zealously 
and with difficulty, through discouragements — 
which far outnumbered the encouragements — the 
first house of the Society of the Helpers of the 
Holy Souls was founded in Paris in 1856, with 
Eugenie Smet as superior under the name, in re- 
ligion, of Mother Mary of Providence, a name par- 
ticularly suited to her, for besides her devotion 
to the Souls in Purgatory, another trait in her 
spiritual character was so strongly marked, so 
multiform in its activity and so victorious over 
every obstacle that it attracted the attention of 
all with whom she came into contact, this was her 
wonderful love for and unshakable trust in the 
Providence of God. It was not long after the 



308 SOCIETY OF THE HELPERS 

foundation of the Society in Paris when the 
young tree began to put forth new branches, "In- 
crease and Multiply" is indeed a great spiritual 
law in all religious orders whose vitality is strong. 
The first house established by the Helpers, out- 
side of Paris, was in Nantes in the year 1864. In 
1867, in response to an appeal from Monseigneur 
Languillat, Vicar-Apostolic of Kiang-Nan, China, 
Sisters were sent to begin work in that coun- 
try, where, owing to the peculiar circumstances 
of China, the Sisters included teaching in their 
work. In less than two years after the en- 
trance of the Helpers to the couiitry, there were 
in Shanghai, two day schools and an orphanage 
under their charge and assisting them were eigh- 
teen native religious. Since then a boarding 
school, an asylum for the blind, another for deaf- 
mutes, a home for the aged, etc., have been added 
to their missions. 

In 1869 the Society established a house in Brus- 
sels, that year too the Society received the long 
expected Brief of Apostolic Approbation from 
Rome. A second Brief of Papal Approbation was 
granted in 1874, by Pius IX.; a third such Brief 
was granted in 1878, by Leo XIII. 

Following the establishment of the house in 
Brussels, foundations were made in London, 
Cannes, Orleans and Tourcoing. In 1879 the 
Helpers were called to Montmartre to make a 
foundation there on that world-famed "Hill of 
Martyrs," their convent now existing on the very 
spot where once stood the famous Abbey of Mont- 
martre. Shortly after this date followed the foun- 
dations of Blanchelande, the Island of Jersey, 
Liege, Rheims, Turin, Florence and a third in 
Hong Kew (China), a third in Paris, Lourdes, 
Versailles and Vienna. 



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MOTHER MARY OF PROVIDENCE 
Foundress of the Society of the Helpers of the Holy Souls 



OF THE HOLY SOULS 309 

In 1892, America had the happiness of welcom- 
ing to her shores a band of the Helpers of the 
Holy Souls. For many years efforts had been 
made to have the Society establish a foundation 
in the United States, and although His Eminence, 
Cardinal McCloskey, had given his sanction to 
their coming, and the Society itself was anxious 
to begin work in this country, it was not until 
that year that all obstacles were finally overcome 
by the patient and quiet labor of Miss Adele 
LeBrun of New York City, and by others whom 
she had interested in the cause. On Sunday, May 
29, 1892, seven members of the Society of the Help- 
ers of the Holy Souls arrived in New York and 
were at once taken to the house prepared for 
them by Miss LeBrun, 25 Seventh Avenue, here 
they opened their first American convent. The 
house was the usual four story brick building 
with nothing exteriorly distinctive about it. 

The Society attaches great importance to the 
exercises of the interior life and a great part of 
each day is devoted to them, for an association 
of expiation ought to be, above all things, an as- 
sociation of prayer. There are two classes of re- 
ligious, the Choir Nuns and the Lay Sisters, the 
latter being chiefly employed in the domestic 
work of the convent homes. The novitiate lasts 
two years. In addition to the usual vows of pov- 
erty, chastity and obedience, the members of this 
Society bind themselves to resign, in favor of the 
dead, so far as the Will of God allows them, all 
the Satisfactions which they would otherwise gain 
for themselves, and all the Suffrages and Satis- 
factions which may be applied to them by others 
during their life or after their death. 

The gratuitous visitation of the sick-poor in 



310 SOCIETY OF THE HELPERS 

their own homes, is one of the chief features and 
characteristic duties of the Society. Another 
characteristic is that they do not, in any way, in- 
terfere with any good works existing, they do all 
possible to influence parents to send their chil- 
dren to the parochial schools and encourage all 
to interest themselves in the good works of their 
parish, their aim /is to win souls who might other- 
wise remain in ignorance and neglect of religion. 
The children taught in their Catechism classes at- 
tend the public schools and have often careless 
parents. The Helpers are, as it were, "the glean- 
ers" picking up the stray ears of corn left after 
the harvesters, who are represented by those ap- 
pointed to carry on the good works of the parish. 

Little by little, in that New York house, meet- 
ings were held for children and for grown people, 
in the beginnings on Sundays only, then also on 
Saturdays and finally every day. Fifteen persons 
attended the first meeting, among which number 
was one colored woman and two colored girls. 
Soon the poor of the neighborhood learned to ap- 
preciate the blessing which had been sent them, 
they went to the convent with all their troubles 
and sorrows of both soul and body, knowing they 
would never be turned away until comforted and 
consoled. And now besides the daily classes in 
religious instructions there are mothers' meetings 
and meetings for young working girls, there are 
meetings held for Germans in German, for Ital- 
ians in Italian. The colored women and children 
also have their meetings, carried on under the 
special patronage of St. Peter Claver. 

In 1894, the house on Seventh Avenue proving 
entirely inadequate to their growing needs, and 
being unable yet to erect the suitable buildings 






OF THE HOLY SOULS 311 

so much needed for Convent and American No- 
vitiate — the Helpers moved from their first home 
to their present abode in New York City at No. 
114 East Eighty-sixth Street. 

In 1857, the appeals to the community for their 
personal and gratuitous services increasing to a 
degree that was beyond the resources of their 
numbers and means, a pressing question arose in 
the mind of their zealous foundress as to what 
was to be done. It was a crisis out of whose pangs 
a new offspring of charity was born in the es- 
tablishment that same year, of an "Association 
of Honorary Members" composed of those per- 
sons desirous of having a share in the good works 
of the Helpers without severing themselves from 
the sphere and duties of their ordinary life. The 
conditions of membership consisted only of the 
obligation of reciting a few prayers daily and of 
contributing annually a small fixed sum towards 
the maintenance of the charitable undertakings 
of the Society. 

Later on a desire arose — among certain ladies — 
to imitate, more closely than was intended or was 
practical for the Honorary Members, the religious 
observances and the charitable actions of the Sis- 
ters. They wished to share in some of the chapel 
services and instructions, to have opportunities 
of more personal intercourse with the Sisters and 
to take their post by their side, or to supply their 
place — in their absence — at the homes of the sick 
and poor. This desire was the origin of an or- 
ganization which occupies a middle place, be- 
tween the Honorary Members and the Religious. 
Their obligations are more extensive than those 
of the former, they make a formal Consecration, 
attend Mass at certain times in the convent chapel, 



312 SOCIETY OF THE HELPERS 

they work for the poor at meetings held regularly 
for that purpose, they recite daily the Vespers for 
the Dead, and they bear the name of "Lady As- 
sociates." The first inauguration of Lady Asso- 
ciates took place at the Mother-house in Paris in 
1859, twenty-eight ladies made the solemn Act of 
Consecration at a special service presided over by 
His Eminence, Cardinal Morlot. 

As the years have passed, this branch of the So- 
ciety has flourished in Europe and here in the 
United States, with its members in the world and 
the world knowing them not, for they wear no 
outward garb of the religious, though somewhere 
on their person— in no conspicuous place — a cross 
is worn, this cross is almost identical with that 
worn by the professed members of the Society. 
However, even the professed in their black habit 
are scarcely distinguishable as nuns, when they 
are seen on the street on their errands of charity, 
with their neat house costume of black covered by 
a long black cloak and modestly wearing a small 
close-fitting bonnet and a gauze veil. Since the 
days of the foundress, the habit worn by the So- 
ciety has been changed but little except in the 
style of the cap worn. 

Two other foundations of the Society have re- 
cently been made in the United States; at No. 
4012 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, Missouri, and 
at No. 204 Haight Street, San Francisco, Cali- 
fornia. 

There are many orders doing God's work 
among us, many whose deeds of mercy are draw- 
ing down God's blessing upon our land, and many 
there are engaged in the great work of the Chris- 
tian education of our children, but none other 
so combines in their mission — as does the Society 



I 




MOTHER THERESE COUDERC 

(Marie Victoire Therese Couderc) 

Foundress of the Society of Our Lady of Retreat in the Cenacle, 1805-1885 



OF THE HOLY SOULS 313 

of the Helpers of the Holy Souls— the two-fold 
object of aiding and uplifting Christ's needy ones 
on earth while at the same time, by the merits 
of their prayers and works, they are freeing His 
suffering ones from Purgatory where His jus- 
tice demands they should be detained until they 
are "whiter than snow" and rendered worthy to 
enjoy the Beatific Vision which shall be their re- 
ward for all eternity. 



SOCIETY OF OUR LADY OF RE- 
TREAT IN THE CENACLE* 

1892 

The Society of Our Lady of Retreat in the 
Cenaclef was founded in 1826 at Louvesc, in* 
France, by an apostolic priest, Jean Pierre' 
Etienne Terme, associated with him in the work 
of this foundation was the saintly Marie Vic- 
toire Therese Couderc. This humble priest, in 
whose soul God planted the germ of the Society 
of the Cenacle, was little known beyond the con- 
fines of the village of La Louvesc in Vivarais, 
France. 

Increasing throngs of pilgrims were constantly 
coming to La Louvesc to venerate the relics and 
to visit the tomb of St. Francis Regis. The excite- 
ment and distraction attending the arrival of so 
many visitors to the little village interfered with 
the recollection and piety of the pilgrims, the 

*E specially prepared from material furnished by the Society of 
the Cenacle, Convent of Our Lady of the Cenacle, 610 "West One 
Hundred Forty-first Street, New York City. 

fThe name is derived from the Latin word "Coenaculum" upper 
room, where the first retreat was made — from Ascension Day to Whit 
Sunday — by the Blessed Virgin and^theAA.rjostles.,'' 



314 SOCIETY OF OUR LADY OF 

happy thought thus came to Father Terme; to 
provide a hospice or place of sojourn for the fem- 
inine visitors to this holy place. 

In response to his appeal, two nuns were sent 
from the convent at Aps to take charge of the 
dwelling he at once secured for the purpose in 
mind. Sister Therese Couderc was appointed the 
Superior. To promote the object of the pil- 
grimages, Father Terme required the guests to 
make a novena or to share in the religious exer- 
cises at the convent, for at least three days. 

The first of the hospices for the giving of these 
retreats was opened on the summit of the moun- 
tain where St. Regis died, in the village of La 
Louvesc, hence the first members of the new 
Community were called the Ladies of Retreat and 
also the Ladies of St. Regis. It was under the 
former name and for the principal object of Re- 
treats that the Institute was first authorized by 
the Rishop of Viviers, Mgr. Ronnell, May 11, 1835, 
and confirmed in 1844 by his successor, Mgr. Gui- 
bert, afterwards Archbishop of Paris. Rut the 
title Ladies of St. Regis had a restricted and local- 
ized meaning, and the title Ladies of Retreat did 
not sufficiently distinguish the new Community 
from others bearing a similar name with differ- 
ent objects. Therefore a name was to be substi- 
tuted which would more specifically designate the 
character and scope of the Institute and declare 
its basis, namely, prayer and apostolate, and 
point to the most perfect possible imitation of 
that retreat which is the model of all others — the 
Assembly in the Cenacle of Jerusalem, where all 
the Apostles "were persevering with one mind in 
prayer with the women and Mary, the Mother of 
Jesus," and thereafter, filled with the Holy Ghost, 



RETREAT IN THE CENACLE 315 

proclaimed the Kingdom of God to all peoples 
in all tongues. 

The title of Notre Dame du Cenacle was offi- 
cially bestowed by the Bishop of Viviers and ap- 
proved by Pope Pius IX. in apostolic letters of 
September 12 and 19, 1846, enriching the Society 
with many spiritual favors. 

For several years after its birth in its humble 
cradle at La Louvesc the Society experienced 
poverty and struggle, but in 1835 Providence led 
to La Louvesc, Father Fouillot, of the Society of 
Jesus, who labored actively for these spiritual 
daughters of Father Terme. Thenceforth the So- 
ciety grew apace in its visible and invisible apos- 
tolate. 

Lj'ons harbored the second Cenacle of the So- 
ciety in 1845. The third Cenacle was opened in 
Paris in 1850, and this, in 1856, became the 
European Mother-house and Novitiate of the So- 
ciety; later these were removed to Brussels. 

Houses were then opened in Paray-le-Monial, 
Nancy, Lille, Marseilles, Turin, Milan and other 
cities until the Society reached America. 

In 1892, members of the Society arrived in the 
United States and were received in New York 
City by the late Archbishop Corrigan. The Amer- 
ican house of the Society was then established in 
that city with Mother de Grimaldi as the first Su- 
perior. The end of the Society, Spiritual Re- 
treats, Teaching of Christian Doctrine and the 
Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is pursued in 
the Convents here as in Europe. 

The habit worn by the members of the Society 
is of black with a purple cape. The Society is 
governed by a Superior General. Each house is 
governed by a Local Superior under the jurisdic- 
tion of the Superior General. The Rules of the 



316 



SERVANTS OF MARY 



Society were finally approved in 1884 by Pope 
Leo XIII. 

The Society now has three European Novi- 
tiates, in Belgium, England and Holland. In the 
United States the Society has since their coming 
opened houses in Newport, R. I., Charleston, S. 
C, and Boston, Mass., besides the house in New 
York, which is considered the Mother-house for 
the Society in the United States, the American 
Novitiate for the Society being also there at the 
Convent of Our Lady of the Cenacle, in New 
York. 



SERVANTS OF MARY* 

1893 



The Third Order or Mantellate of the Congre- 
gation of Servants of Mary was founded by Saint 
Juliana Falconieri, to whom St. Philip gave the 
habit in 1284. This branch occupies itself with 
active works after the example of its holy foun- 
dress. From Italy it spread into other countries 
of Europe. The Venerable Anna Juliana, Arch- 
duchess of Austria, founded several houses and 
became a Mantellate herself. In 1844 it was in- 
troduced into France and was thence extended 
into England in 1850. The Sisters were the first 
to wear the religious habit publicly in that coun- 
try after the so-called Beformation. They are at 
present one of the leading religious orders for 
women in what was once "Mary's Dowry," having 
been active missionaries under Father Faber and 
the Oratorians for many years. In 1871 the Eng- 

*From material furnished by the Servants of Mary, Mt. St. Mary, 
Cherokee, Iowa. 




►L of 
! 2 

in 
S3 



SERVANTS OF MARY 317 

lish province sent Sisters to America, but they 
were recalled in 1875. The superior general be- 
ing very desirous to see the order established in 
the United States sent Sisters a second time in 1893. 
They have now a novitiate at Cherokee, Iowa, 
and mission houses in Iowa and Illinois. 

They devote themselves principally to the edu- 
cation of youth, managing academies and taking 
charge of parochial schools and workrooms. They 
also undertake works of mercy, such as the care 
of orphans, visiting the sick and instructing con- 
verts, etc. Above all, in imitation of their Holy 
Foundress, St. Juliana, the Sisters do all in their 
power to instill into the hearts of those under 
their care a great love for Jesus in the Blessed 
Sacrament. At the last General Chapter held in 
London July 31, 1906, a vicaress general for Amer- 
ica was appointed. 



SISTERS OF THE DIVINE SAVIOUR * 

1894 

The Society of the Sisters of the Divine Saviour 
was founded in Rome, Italy, in the year 1888, by 
Father Franciscus M. Jordan. The first house of 
the Order was established in Tivoli, Italy, 1888. 

In 1894, upon the invitation of the Most Rev. 
F. X. Katzer, then Archbishop of Milwaukee, Sis- 
ter Raphael and companion Sisters came to the 
United States, to pursue their work of education, 
hospitals and missions in the Archdiocese of Mil- 
waukee. 

The first house of the Sisters, at St. Mary's 

*From data furnished by the Sisters of the Divine Saviour, St. 
Mary's Hospital, Wausau, Wisconsin. 



318 SISTERS OF THE DIVINE SAVIOUR 

Convent, 35th and Center Streets, is the American 
novitiate for the Community. It is under the gov- 
ernment of the Mother-General and four coun- 
cillors at the Mother-house in Rome. St. Mary's 
Hospital in Wausau, Wisconsin, is the American 
Provincial House. 

On August 18, 1911, the rules of the Sisters of 
the Divine Saviour, received Papal approbation. 



RELIGIOUS HOSPITALLERS OF ST. 
JOSEPH * 

1894 

The Congregation of the Religious Hospitaliers 
of St. Joseph was founded in the year 1636, at La 
Fleche, France, by Mother de la Ferre. 

On November 18, 1689, the Community made a 
foundation in Montreal, Canada, and not until 
the year 1894 did the Congregation come to the 
United States, where in that year they established 
in Winooski Falls, Vermont — in the diocese of 
Burlington — a convent and hospital. 

In 1903, the Religious Hospitaliers of St. Joseph 
were received in the Archdiocese of Chicago, 
where they assumed charge of St. Bernard's Hos- 
pital in that city. 

The special work of the Community is hospital 
work and the caring for the sick. The various 
houses of the Order are each independent, being 
under the jurisdiction of the bishop of the dio- 
cese. 

The usual simple vows of religion are made by 

*From data furnished by the Religious Hospitaliers of St. Joseph, 
St. Bernard's Hospital, Chicago, Illinois. 



DOMINICAN SISTERS 319 

the Religious, and they make their final profes- 
sion three years after the taking of vows. 

On May 12, 1866, the Congregation received the 
approbation of the Holy See from Pope Pius IX. 



DOMINICAN SISTERS OF THE CON- 
GREGATION OF ST. ROSE 
OF LIMA* 

(The Servants of Relief for Incurable Cancer.) 

1898 

Among the many American communities of 
Dominican Sisters, the Congregation of St. Rose 
of Lima — established in New York City in 1898 — 
is of more than usual interest in the United 
States. 

Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, the daughter of Na- 
thaniel Hawthorne and the wife of George Par- 
sons Lathrop, separated herself from a long line 
of Puritan ancestors and with her husband with- 
drew from the Unitarianism, professed by her im- 
mediate family, to enter the Catholic Church. Fol- 
lowing their admission to the Church in 1894, Mr. 
and Mrs. Lathrop united in the production of one 
more book, the "Story of Courage." 

Shortly after the death of her husband, which 
occurred soon after his conversion, Mrs. Lathrop 
one day asked the Paulist father, her spiritual 
director, "What can I do for God?" He had just 
come from the bedside of a cancer patient — a 

*Especially prepared from material secured in "Christ's Poor," a 
monthly pamphlet issued from Rosary Hill Home, Hawthorne, New York, 
also from material furnished by Rose Potter Daggett in the Woman's 
Magazine, New York. 



320 SERVANTS OF RELIEF 

woman of refinement, left without money and 
without friends, who must become a city charge 
at Blackwell's Island — this, and all the misery it 
meant, the priest told his listener. "Oh," she ex- 
claimed, "why do any of us sit idle when such 
suffering exists!" It was then that her resolve 
was made. Within a few weeks she had entered 
the Memorial Hospital on 106th Street, New York, 
for training in the nursing of cancer. Only a 
short course was necessary, for there is little be- 
yond ordinary hygienic measures that can be 
done for this dread disease. 

In 1896, Mrs. Lathrop was ready to begin her 
life-work for God. Her private fortune and the 
contributions of friends enabled her to establish, 
on Cherry Street in New York City, the Free 
Home for hopeless cancer cases. Mrs. Lathrop 
was alone in her work, her first patient — a worn- 
out old woman deserted by her family when they 
knew the disease was cancer — she not only 
nursed but took her to her rooms, then on Scam- 
mel Street, and there she — Rose Hawthorne La- 
throp — scrubbed floors, cooked the meals and did 
all for the care and relief of her poor suffering 
patient. In a corner of the room she set up a lit- 
tle shrine, it was to St. Rose of Lima, a patron 
Saint of the Dominicans. 

Other patients were commended to her, three 
other women had joined her in her great work 
in behalf of the cancerous poor. Mrs. Lathrop 
named herself and her assistants "Servants of 
Relief." 

In 1898, Rose Hawthorne Lathrop and her co- 
laborers — then numbering more than twenty — 
were received into the Dominican Order, as the 
Congregation of St. Rose of Lima. Mrs. Lathrop 



FOR INCURABLE CANCER 321 

as Mother Alphonsa, was appointed Superior of 
the new Congregation. 

The special work of this Dominican Congrega- 
tion is: "To provide for destitute incurables of 
both sexes. The first forlorn condition to be met 
by adequate accommodation and care is that of 
cancer, at present left in dreadful neglect. Other 
diseases in the incurable stage among the desti- 
tute persons of both sexes will be attended to 
when the members of the Community become 
sufficiently numerous to extend the work, either 
without or with hired help. Hired help will never 
be allowed in such force that the Sisters will lose 
personal control of cases, and will only be ad- 
mitted when the benefit of the poor demands that 
the exception should be made, as in the case of 
male cases, who will sometimes require hired 
male help. 

"An important object of the charity is to look 
carefully to the interests of the poor, especially 
whenever the interests of science are held in auto- 
cratic estimation by persons of inferior judgment, 
as opposed to the enlightened and noble verdict 
of eminent physicians. Incurable cancer is now 
a matter of general and exhaustive study, and 
the poor supply the principal material used. This 
clause is of deepest concern to those who are 
really devoted to destitute misery. Reference can- 
not be made to policy or special approval of a 
human order, but to God's approval alone, not- 
withstanding the unfailing accompaniment of op- 
position from Pharisee and money-changer which 
such a course involves. 

"To prove that cancer is not dangerous to nurse, 
with the precautions used by any neat method, 
or even when accidents of contact unfortunately 

21 



322 SERVANTS OF RELIEF 

occur, this is one of the chief uses of the char- 
ity, since the dread of cancer is so great that 
much inhumanity is shown in the neglect to un- 
dertake proper 'dressings' of wounds, and the 
desire to be rid of a member of the family who 
is afflicted with the malady. 

"To show by record of experience the best meth- 
ods of relieving pain, odor and excessive cor- 
ruption of the disease, which are frequently in- 
creased by 'dressings,' etc., such as are now 
usually prescribed, and found in many cases to 
which the nurses are called. 

"To prove that the only way to meet the great 
sufferings of the poor sick is to enlist the interest 
and personal service of the women of the differ- 
ent parishes, who could properly and fully attend 
to all cases of destitute incurables of all sorts, if 
they would religiously devote a part of each week 
to them, at times never to be postponed or dele- 
gated. 

"To prove that the public is willing and able to 
provide all the money and many articles neces- 
sary for such charitable care as the Sisters under- 
take to give; and that in each parish two houses 
for cancer and its kindred diseases could and 
should be established, from which the cases may 
be sent to larger Homes in the country, when 
death is not imminent. 

"To prove that many cases of incurable cancer 
can be cared for at home, whether there is a mem- 
ber able to nurse the sick person, or a member 
whose wage-earning had seemed to make an in- 
superable difficulty. The wage earning can be 
postponed by the payment of the rent and other 
necessaries through the charity of the public. This 
precaution encourages proper kindness and devo- 



FOR INCURABLE CANCER 323 

tion on the part of the family of the sick person, 
and obviates the bitter sorrow of the patient who 
loves children and sisters, when no longer loved 
in return. The cancerous member of a family, 
man or woman, is, as a rule, superior in charac- 
ter to the rest of the members, and has incurred 
the disease of cancer by generous labor for those 
who refuse to do the nursing when tragic condi- 
tions develop. To urge Christian kindness upon 
dark intellects which may fall into error of this 
sort, is a great necessity. On the other hand, in- 
stances will be cited later of sublime devotion, 
difficult to imitate in any class of the human 
family. 

"To add another definite activity to those al- 
ready existing, which is of a nature to hasten the 
spread of the light of intelligence, morality and 
religion, and a gracious decency, in the homes of 
the poor of cities, from the intimate investigation 
and companionship afforded by tragic circum- 
stances to the friends who bring relief." 

In 1899, the Congregation purchased the house 
at 426 Cherry Street, thus establishing St. Rose's 
Free Home in permanent quarters. In all New 
York there is no other free home for this class of 
sufferers, nor even a place for them in the other 
hospitals of the city, for as soon as a case is pro- 
nounced incurable, then must the hospital turn it 
away. 

In Westchester County, New York, far away 
from even the echo of the city's noise and stir, 
yet near enough for easy access, is Mother Al- 
phonsa's second institution — Rosary Hill Home at 
Hawthorne, N. Y. 

There now is the home of this gifted and bril- 
liant woman — the daughter of one of America's 



324 



SISTERS OF ST. JOSEPH 



greatest men, and the noble congenial wife of an- 
other, here now in the white garb of the Domin- 
ican Nun she is performing her life work. Often 
through the still watches of the night she rises to 
attend the dying, the warm firm clasp of her hand 
giving strength and confidence to the sufferer 
whose soul is passing unto its Maker. 

During the current year, 1912, it was found ab- 
solutely necessary to have more room for the pa- 
tients than was to be had at St. Rose's Free Home 
in New York City. Plans were made for a new 
building, subscriptions were secured, and in the 
Fall of the year the new five-story building, with 
its accommodations for 200 cancer patients was 
opened. And in proportion to the needs of the 
patients, so has the Community increased in these 
years since its organization, and today the "Ser- 
vants of Relief for Incurable Cancer" form one of 
America's noblest and most needed Religious Or- 
ders of Women in the Catholic Church. 



THE SISTERS OF ST. JOSEPH OF 
LA GRANGE* 

1899 



One of the first to welcome the little French 
colony of the Sisters of St. Joseph when they 
landed in Louisiana, in 1836, was the Very Rever- 
end Father Timon, Visitor of the Congregation of 
the Mission in the United States. Having in 1847 
been consecrated first Rishop of Ruffalo he, like 
another St. Vincent de Paul, set himself to pro- 

*Especially prepared from material furnished by the Sisters of 
Saint Joseph, Nazareth Academy, La Grange, Illinois. 



OF LA GRANGE 325 

vide comfort and consolation for every species of 
human woe and misery. While seeking co-opera- 
tors in his works of charity and beneficence, he 
was not unmindful of the Sisters of St. Joseph. 

In response to his invitation, a company of Sis- 
ters was sent from St. Louis to Canandaigua, a vil- 
lage most beautifully and picturesquely situated 
at the head of Canandaigua Lake, and then includ- 
ed in the diocese of Buffalo. The Sisters arrived 
here on the 8th of December, 1854, that day for- 
ever glorious in the annals of the Church, and 
placed under the invocation of Mary Immaculate, 
the educational establishment which they then 
opened. 

The vast diocese of Buffalo having been di- 
vided in the year 1868, the Right Rev. Bernard J. 
McQuaid, Founder, and for many years President 
of Seton Hall College, South Orange, New Jer- 
sey, was on the 12th of July in that year, conse- 
crated first Bishop of Rochester. 

This zealous prelate, whose name and fame as 
one of the ablest champions of Catholic educa- 
tion, have spread not only through our own coun- 
try but even to Europe, set himself at once to the 
formation of a diocesan community of the Sisters 
of St. Joseph. The Reverend Mother Stanislaus 
Leary, of saintly memory, was chosen Superior 
of the Sisterhood of Rochester, and during the 
fifteen years which she held that office, she won 
the esteem of all with whom she came in contact. 
In the year 1883, a request for Sisters to open 
educational establishments was received from the 
good Benedictine Bishop Fink of Leavenworth, 
Kansas. Mother Stanislaus decided to personally 
take charge of that far-away mission, and finally 
obtained the consent of Bishop McQuaid to leave 



326 



SISTERS OF ST. JOSEPH 



Rochester, in order to establish the Sisterhood on 
the broad Western prairies. 

In 1899, the apostolic and saintly Archbishop of 
Chicago — the Most Reverend Patrick A. Feehan, 
D. D. — a true and tried friend of the Sisters of 
St. Joseph, invited Mother Stanislaus to open an 
Academy at La Grange, Illinois. With the ap- 
proval of the bishop, she left her Western con- 
vent and established the Congregation in the 
great Archdiocese of Chicago. 

The little community was scarcely established 
in the beautiful suburb of the great metropolis 
when the untimely death of Mother Stanislaus 
occurred, February 14, 1900. For years she had 
been a patient sufferer, fighting against a dread 
disease that was gradually undermining her pow- 
erful constitution, though it never weakened her 
will nor dampened her ardent spirit. Through 
all these years of martyrdom she never ceased in 
her fruitful efforts to advance the cause of Chris- 
tian education. Lasting monuments to her labors 
are to be seen in the dioceses of Rochester, New 
York, and of Concordia, Kansas, from which cen- 
tres flourishing schools have been established in 
almost every diocese from the Great Lakes to the 
Gulf. Divine Providence did not spare her to 
place the new foundation in the Archdiocese of 
Chicago on a secure footing and her death al- 
most defeated the purpose for which she had 
come thither. She was the head and heart of the 
new movement; the Sisters who were with her 
had no experience in administrative work, and 
courage almost left them when their beloved 
Mother was gone. One only was near to her — 
Sister Mary Alexine Gosselin — and to her Mother 
Stanislaus confided the work of continuing this 




REV. MOTHER M. ALEXINE, S. S. J. 

Foundress of the Mother-house of the Sisters of St. Joseph at La Grange, 

in the Archdiocese of Chicago, in the year 1900 



OF LA GRANGE 327 

foundation. The very thought terrified the young, 
inexperienced Sister Alexine, but the Most Rever- 
end Archbishop seemed to be inspired with some 
of the confidence of Mother Stanislaus, for from 
among the Sisters she had left, he chose Sister 
Alexine for Superior, and commissioned her to 
go on with the work. Nazareth Academy was 
completed and on Christmas Day, 1901, Mother 
Alexine and her little family of zealous religious 
were established in their new home. 

La Grange is justly proud of this institution in 
which young ladies receive a sound and finished 
training in mind and heart. Along with the ma- 
terial progress made by this Community of heroic 
workers, the intellectual advancement of its mem- 
bers has kept apace, so that today a skilled body 
of teachers has been developed, capable of giving 
the best training in all the departments of knowl- 
edge pursued in such a school. 

Besides the Academy for girls, Rev. Mother 
Alexine, yielding to the importune demands of 
many patrons, has opened a school for small boys 
known as St. Joseph Institute. This Institute is 
under the same efficient regime as the Academy. 
Young boys from five to twelve years of age are 
taken care of as in no other boarding school, for 
the life is home-like, the Sisters as attentive as 
mothers to the little ones. 

As in all convents of the Sisters of St. Joseph, 
the novitiate forms a large part of the institution 
of Nazareth at La Grange. The Congregation is 
cosmopolitan in membership, but its subjects are 
mainly drawn from the following countries: 
United States of America, Canada, Ireland, Ger- 
many, Austria, France, Italy, Bohemia, Belgium 
and Poland. It makes no difference whether as- 



328 



SISTERS OF ST. JOSEPH 



pirants to the order be rich or poor; all that is 
required is solid piety, signs of a religious voca- 
tion and good health. Educated applicants are nat- 
urally preferred, but no pious soul, fulfilling re- 
quired conditions, will be rejected, provided she 
has a true vocation for the religious life. The 
custom in the Community is to educate those 
young girls whose intellectual training has been 
neglected, provided they evince talent, are men- 
tally capable of making the prescribed course of 
studies, which is of a very high standard, and are 
sincerely desirous of persevering in the Congre- 
gation. The Sisters who aspire to become teach- 
ers are obliged to pass a satisfactory academic 
and normal examination before they will be per- 
mitted to instruct others, hence the high grade of 
scholarship among the teachers of the Congrega- 
tion. If a novice shows a decided talent for a 
special branch of education, she is provided with 
the best instructors obtainable and encouraged in 
every way to thoroughly perfect herself in her 
particular branch of science. 

All young girls are not called by God to become 
school teachers, but as there is only one grade of 
members in St. Joseph's Sisterhood, and no class 
distinction exists between them, and since the 
Community conducts works of charity in general, 
nurses, dressmakers, milliners, stenographers, 
typewriters, domestics, etc., etc., are received into 
the order, and places suited to their individual 
tastes and capacities are found for each member 
in the various convents. 

From sixteen to thirty years is the most appro- 
priate age for the admission of candidates into 
the Society. Educated women and workers are 
sometimes received at a more advanced age. 



POLISH FRANCISCAN SCHOOL SRS. 329 

The Sisters of St. Joseph make the customary 
vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Only 
those who, after seven years of faithful labor and 
strict observance of the Rule, have proved them- 
selves worthy and reliable members are permit- 
ted to pronounce perpetual vows. 



POLISH FRANCISCAN SCHOOL SIS- 
TERS * 

1901 

The Congregation of the Polish Franciscan 
School Sisters was founded in St. Louis, Mis- 
souri, in 1901 by Most Rev. John J. Kain, then 
Archbishop of St. Louis. The first house of the 
Order was established in that city on May 29, of 
the foundation year. 

The members of the Community take the sim- 
ple vows of religion. At least six months must be 
spent by the candidate as postulant, before she 
is admitted to the novitiate, where she remains 
for two years, followed by five years in the Com- 
munity before the vows of final profession are 
taken. 

The Sisters wear a brown habit and are under 
the spiritual direction of Rev. Rogerius Midden- 
dorf, 0. F. M. 

Teaching being the special work of the Order, 
schools are conducted by them in the Archdiocese 
of St. Louis, the Diocese of Cleveland, Kansas 
City, Leavenworth and Sioux City. 

The Mother-house and novitiate are located to- 

*From data furnished by the Polish Franciscan School Sisters, 
Convent of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, St. Louis, Missouri. 



330 



SISTERS OF ST. URSULA 



gether at 3419 Gasconade Street, St. Louis, with 
Mother Hilaria, as Mother-General of the Congre- 
gation. 



SISTERS OF ST. URSULA OF THE 
BLESSED VIRGIN* 

1901 



The Society of the Sisters of Saint Ursula of 
the Blessed Virgin was founded in 1606 at Dole, 
(then a Spanish possession) France. The Society 
was founded by the Venerable Anne de Xainct- 
onge, its aim is two-fold — the sanctification of its 
members by the observance of the simple and 
perpetual vows of religion, and the salvation and 
the sanctification of their neighbors. The latter 
is especially obtained by teaching as well as by 
works of mercy, spiritual and corporal. 

At a time when the education of girls was more 
than neglected, Mademoiselle de Xainctonge, 
amid extraordinary trials, realized her inspired 
thought to do for girls what St. Ignatius had done 
for boys. This idea was then a new one. Anne 
de Xainctonge may therefore be called a pioneer 
in the education of girls. 

The classes opened at Dole, June 16, 1606, were 
public, without distinction of rich or poor, and ab- 
solutely free. From Dole, the institute spread rap- 
idly in France, Switzerland and Germany. With 
the Church it suffered persecution, but in what- 
soever country they went the community found 
children whom they were at liberty to teach. 

Their convents in France having been closed 

*Especially prepared from facts in Catholic Encyclopedia. 



OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN 331 

during the French Revolution were reopened as 
soon as peace was declared. When in 1901, 
through the anti-religious laws then promulgated 
in France, the sisters had to leave the country, 
the Mother-house, established at Tours in 1814, 
was transferred to Haverloolez-Bruges, Belgium. 

At this time, 1901, the Sisters of Saint Ursula 
also made their first foundation in the United 
States, where they opened a house at No. 523 
West 142nd Street in New York City. In 1911 a 
second American establishment was opened at 
Providence, Rhode Island. 

The Society of the Sisters of Saint Ursula was 
formally approved by the Holy See in 1648, this 
approbation being confirmed in 1678. In 1898, 
upon request of the religious of Tours, the orig- 
inal constitutions being revised conformably to 
the new regulations of the Church for religious 
orders, were definitely approved by Leo XIII. and 
their branch erected as a generalate. 

In the year 1902 the words, "of the Blessed Vir- 
gin," were added to the title of the Sisters of Saint 
Ursula, to distinguish the non-cloistered daugh- 
ters of Venerable Anne de Xainctonge from the 
cloistered daughters of Saint Angela Merici. 



SISTERS OF THE HOLY GHOST* 

1902 

The Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy 
Ghost was founded at St. Brienc, Cotes du Nord, 
France, in December of 1706; the first establish- 

*From data furnished by the Sisters of the Holy Ghost, Convent 
of the Holy G-host, Hartford, Connecticut. 



332 SISTERS OF THE HOLY GHOST 

ment of the Congregation was opened in March, 
1707. 

A little less than two centuries after the foun- 
dation of the Community — during which time 
they established their missions throughout Eu- 
rope — a band of the Sisters, with Mother Mary 
Alvarez as Superior, arrived in the United States. 

Having come to this country through the ef- 
forts of the late Rt. Rev. Michael Tierney, D. D., 
Bishop of Hartford, the Sisters, in December of 
1902, established their American mother-house 
and novitiate at 118 Main Street, in the city of 
Hartford, Connecticut. 

The members of the Community wear a white 
habit and take the usual three vows of religion. 
The Order in America, as in Europe, is under the 
government of the Bishop of St. Brienc and a 
council formed by the Mother General, Assistant 
Superior, the Mistress of Novices, the Secretary 
and Provincial Mothers. 

Papal approbation of the rules was received in 
the year 1806. 

The special work of the Order being Nursing, 
Hospitals, Schools, and Day-Nurseries, the Sisters 
have successfully established institutes for their 
work in the States of Connecticut and Massachu- 
setts. 

FRENCH BENEDICTINE SISTERS* 

1906 

The Congregation of the French Benedictine 
Sisters was established in the United States in the 
year 1906, by Sisters from Basses, Pyrenees, 
France. 



*Catholic Directory, 1912. 



SISTERS OF THE ATONEMENT 333 

The American Mother-house and novitiate for 
the Sisters is located at St. Gertrude's Convent, 
St. Benedict P. 0., Louisiana. 



SISTERS OF SAINT CASIMIR* 

1908 

The Institute of the Sisters of St. Casimir was 
founded in the year 1908, for the education of 
children of Lithuanian birth or descent, in the 
United States. 

The Mother-house and Novitiate of the Congre- 
gation are located at 67th and Rockwell Streets 
in Chicago, Illinois. 

Schools in the archdiocese of Chicago and in 
the dioceses of Harrisburg and Scranton are con- 
ducted by Sisters of this Congregation. 

*Catholic Directory, 1912. 



THE SISTERS OF THE ATONE- 
MENT * 

1909 

One of the most interesting of the recently es- 
tablished Orders of women in the Catholic 
Church in the United States, is that of the So- 
ciety of the Atonement. 

Established December 15, 1898, as a religious 
organization of the Anglican Church, the Society 
was so until the corporate reception of its mem- 
bers into the Catholic Church, October 30, 1909. 

*From data furnished by the Sisters of the Atonement, St. Francis 
Convent (Graymoor), Garrison, New York. 



334 SISTERS OF THE ATONEMENT 

The Society consists of three congregations; the 
Friars of the Atonement, the Sisters of the Atone- 
ment and the Tertiaries in the world. All are 
members of the Third Order of Saint Francis. 

The Congregation of the Sisters of the Atone- 
ment — with Mother Lurana as Superior — is estab- 
lished at the Convent of St. Francis, Graymoor, 
Garrison, New York. 

Situated as Graymoor is, in New York State, 
midway between Garrison and Peekskill, sur- 
rounded on every side by the Highlands of the 
Hudson, the Convent — though barely fifty miles 
from the heart of New York City — thus complete- 
ly shut in from the noise and bustle of the busy 
world, is ideally located for the Mother-house and 
novitiate of the fervent community. Here the Sis- 
ters of the Atonement have made the vows of re- 
ligion, here they pursue their special work of giv- 
ing religious instruction and in the performance 
of other missionary work. 

The Rule of the new Congregation requires the 
candidate to its numbers to spend one year in the 
novitiate, after which vows for one year are 
made and renewed annually for six years, when 
the vows of final profession may be made. 

The brown habit of the Franciscans is the habit 
worn by the Sisters. 

Pending the application to the Holy See for 
Papal approbation' of their Rule, His Eminence, 
Cardinal Farley, has conferred his approval upon 
the Rule and Mission of the Sisters of the Atone- 
ment. 



PASSIONIST NUNS 335 

PASSIONIST NUNS* 
1910 

In the year 1770, a few years before his death, 
St. Paul of the Cross— who in 1720 founded the 
Order of Passionist Fathers — established, in Cor- 
neto, Italy, the Passionist Nuns. The first house 
of the Order was founded in that city. In Sep- 
tember of the foundation year Papal approbation 
was given the rules of the new congregation. 

The end and purpose of the Passionist Sister- 
hood may be gathered from the very name "Pas- 
sionist" or Daughters of the Cross and Passion, 
as St. Paul called them. 

The special vocation and life-work of St. Paul 
of the Cross was to save the world by reviving 
among men the remembrance of the sufferings 
and death of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. 
The sufferings of Jesus Christ were ever in his 
mind and heart and ever on his lips. It was the 
overpowering thought of Christ's sufferings, for 
the sins of the world, that led Paul from his 
early years to embrace a life of most austere pen- 
ance and it was the same thought that inspired 
him to gather about him disciples, and form a 
Religious Order, the distinctive work of which 
was to labor for the world's salvation by the 
preaching of the Passion of Jesus Christ. 

Having completed the foundation of this first 
Order, his love for Jesus Crucified urged him to 
found a second order — an order for women — 
who should devote themselves to the same divine 

*Especially prepared by the Passionist Nuns, Convent of Our Lady 
of Sorrows, Carrick, Pennsylvania. 



336 



PASSIONIST NUNS 



work of saving souls by spreading abroad the re- 
membrance of Christ's bitter Passion and death. 
They were to do this, however, not by preaching, 
nor indeed by any of the works of the active life, 
but by the practices of the contemplative life, — 
by prayer and penance. 

Whilst the Fathers are engaged in the preach- 
ing of the Passion of Jesus Christ on missions and 
retreats, these nuns remain at the foot of the 
Cross with Mary, the Sorrowful Mother, interced- 
ing for a sinful world and imploring the divine 
assistance upon the Missionary Fathers, and thus 
indirectly, yet most effectually, co-operating in 
the salvation of souls. 

The Passionist Nuns are strictly cloistered, and 
have no direct communication with the outside 
world. They take the three perpetual vows of 
poverty, chastity, and obedience, and in addition 
to these take a fourth vow to promote the devo- 
tion to the Passion of Jesus Christ in the hearts 
of the faithful. 

Their rule of life is most austere, besides ob- 
serving many days of fast and abstinence, they 
devote much time daily to prayer and to the 
chanting of the Divine Office. They rise about 
midnight and spend one hour and a half before 
the tabernacle pleading with Our Lord for mercy 
upon sinners. 

The religious habit of the Passionist Nuns is 
similar to that worn by the Passionist Fathers — 
a rough black habit and cloak and attached on 
the breast of each garment is a white heart sur- 
mounted by a cross and bearing the inscription 
"Jesu Christi Passio" — the Passion of Jesus 
Christ. Around the waist is a leathern belt to 
which is attached the rosary of Our Blessed Lady. 






PASSIONIST NUNS 337 

The Sisters do not use shoes or stockings but, like 
the Passionist Fathers, go in their bare feet, wear- 
ing sandals only. 

For their support they depend upon the dowry 
which each nun brings to the community and up- 
on their own industry; they make sacred vest- 
ments and do all kinds of embroidery, fine needle 
work, fancy painting and work in wax. Whatever 
time is not spent in devotional and community 
exercises is given to such work. 

In July of 1910, through the efforts of Very Rev. 
Father Stanislaus, Provincial of the Passionist 
Fathers, the first house of the Passionist Nuns 
was established in the United States. Mother M. 
Hyacinth and five companion Sisters arrived 
from Italy and founded in the diocese of Pitts- 
burgh their American home in Carrick, Pennsyl- 
vania. Here in their Convent of Our Lady of 
Sorrows, reservation of a part of the building is 
made for the accommodation of ladies who de- 
sire to devote some days to the exercises of a 
spiritual retreat. Though ladies will be received 
for this purpose at any time, there are special re- 
treats given at various times during the year. On 
these occasions the retreats are preached by the 
missionary fathers and a course of conferences is 
thus given to the ladies assembled at the convent. 

The chief benefit resulting from the presence of 
the Passionist Nuns in this country, however, 
will be the blessing which their life of prayer and 
penance will merit from God for the people. 
"The continual prayer of the just man availeth 
much," says St. James. Prayer united with pen- 
ance is omnipotent with God. He will not turn 
a deaf ear to the requests of His friends. Souls 
who, for the love of God, renounce all worldly 

22 



338 PASSIONIST NUNS 

wealth and pleasure and embrace a life of volun- 
tary poverty, chastity, and obedience are the par- 
ticular friends of God; hence they have very 
great influence with Him. They are, so to speak, 
the power behind the throne, for, as in worldly 
matters, so in spiritual matters, the patronage of 
influential personages counts for much. Besides 
God ordinarily grants His supernatural graces to 
souls only in response to prayer — that is, in re- 
sponse to their own prayers for themselves, or 
to the prayers offered for them by pure holy 
souls. Thus the grace which converts sinners, 
though conferred through the agency of the 
priests, who are the consecrated ministers of 
Jesus Christ, is obtained from God usually 
through the prayer of some fervent soul. 

Hence, the high esteem in which Holy Mother 
Church has ever held the contemplative orders 
in which earnest souls devote themselves to a life 
of prayer and penance. Such Orders will ever 
have a mission to fulfill in this world, and to- 
gether with the active orders, will ever form an 
integral part of the Church's life. Hence, wher- 
ever the Church enjoys the freedom of worship 
and is allowed to develop all her divine energies, 
the contemplative orders are seen to spring up 
and increase in number side by side with the 
active orders. 



APPENDIX 



MOTHER-HOUSES 

AND 

NOVITIATES 

IN THE 

UNITED STATES 

FOR 

RELIGIOUS ORDERS OF WOMEN 

OF THE 

CATHOLIC CHURCH 



PROVINCE OF BALTIMORE 



The 
Archdiocese 

OF 

Baltimore 



f Sisters of Bon Secours . 2000 West Baltimore Street, 

Baltimore, Maryland. 

Discalced Carmelites Carmelite Convent, 

Caroline and Biddle Streets, 
Baltimore, Maryland. 
Franciscan Sisters of Convent of Our Lady and St. 
Baltimore ( for col- Francis, 2226 Maryland Ave., 

ored missions ) Baltimore, Maryland. 

Mission Helpers of the Sacred Heart Convent, 

Sacred Heart 416 West Biddle Street, 

Baltimore, Maryland. 
School Sisters of Notre Institute of Notre Dame, 
Dame (Eastern Pro- Aisquith St. and Ashland 

vincial House) Ave., Baltimore, Maryland. 

Oblate Sisters of Provi- St. Francis Convent, 

dence East Chase Street, 

Baltimore, Maryland. 

f Visitation Convent, 
604 Park Avenue, 
Baltimore, Maryland. 
Mt. de Sales Convent, 

Catonsville, Maryland. 
Visitation Convent, 

Frederick, Maryland. 
Visitation Convent, 
Connecticut Avenue, 
Washington, D. C. 
Visitation Convent, 
Georgetown, D. C. 



Visitation Nuns . 



Salesian Sisters of the 
Holy Eucharist 

Dominican Nuns of the 
Perpetual Rosary .... 

Sisters of Charity of St. 

Vincent de Paul 

Ursuline Sisters 

Sisters of Mercv 



Sisters of Perpetual Ad- 
oration 

343 



St. Raphael's Institute, 
509 Hanover Street, 
Baltimore, Maryland. 

Dominican Monastery, 
Maiden Choice Avenue, 
Catonsville, Maryland. 

St. Joseph's Convent, 
Emmitsburg, Maryland. 

St. Michael's Convent, 
Frostburg, Maryland. 

Convent of Mercy, 
Mt. Washington, Maryland. 

Convent of Perpetual Adora- 
tion, Washington, D. C. 



344 



MOTHER-HOUSES AND NOVITIATES 



Diocese 

of 

Charleston, 

S. C. 



Diocese 

of 

Richmond, 

Va. 

Diocese 

of 

Saint 

Augustine, 

Fla. 

Diocese 
of 

Savannah, 
Ga. 



Diocese 

of 

Wheeling, 

W. Va. 

Diocese 

of 

Wilmington, 

Del. 

Vicariate 

Apostolic 

of 

N. C. 



Sisters of Mercy 

Ursuline Sisters 



Sisters of St. Benedict. 
Visitation Nuns 



Sisters of St. Benedict. 
Sisters of St. Joseph . . 



Sisters of Mercy 

Sisters of St. Joseph. 

r Sisters of St. Joseph. 
Visitation Nuns 



Ursuline Sisters 
Visitation Nuns 



. 



Sisters of Mercy. 



Convent of the Sisters of 
Mercy, Legare and Queen 
Sts., Charleston, S. C. 
Ursuline Convent, 

Assembly and Hampton Sts., 
Columbia, S. C. 

Benedictine Convent, 

Bristow, Virginia. 
Visitation Convent, 

2209 East Grace Street, 
Richmond, Virginia. 

Benedictine Convent, 
St. Leo, Florida. 

Convent of Sisters of St. Jo- 
seph, St. Augustine, Florida. 

Convent of the Sisters of 
Mercy, Savannah, Georgia. 

Convent of the Sisters of St. 
Joseph, Washington, 
Georgia. 

St. Joseph's Convent, 

Eoff and Fourteenth Streets, 
Wheeling, West Virginia. 
Convent of Mt. de Chantal, 

Wheeling, West Virginia. 

Ursuline Convent, 

Wilmington, Delaware. 

Visitation Convent, 

Wilmington, Delaware. 

Sacred Heart Convent of Mercy, 
Belmont, 

North Carolina. 



PROVINCE OF BOSTON 



The 

Archdiocese 

of 

Boston 



f Carmelite Nuns Carmelite Monastery, 

61 Mt. Pleasant Avenue, 
Roxbury, Boston, Mass. 

Poor Clare Nuns Monastery of St. Clare, 

38 Bennett Street, 



-{ Sisters of St. Joseph . . . 

Sisters of Ste. Chreti- 
enne 

Sisters of Notre Dame of 
Namur 



Boston, Mass. 
Convent of Mt. St. Joseph, 

Brighton, Boston, Mass. 
St. Joseph's Convent, 

Salem, Mass. 
Convent of Notre Dame 

( Eastern Novitiate ) , New- 
ton St., Waltham, Mass. 



IN THE UNITED STATES 



345 



Diocese 

of 

Burlington, 

Vt. 



Sisters of Mercy 

Sisters of St. JoseDh... 



Mt. St. Mary's Mercy Convent, 

Kutland, Vermont. 
Convent of the Sisters of St. 

Joseph, Rutland, Vermont. 



f Dominican Sisters. 



Diocese 

of 

Fall River, 

Mass. 



Sisters of Mercy 



Sisters of the Holy 
Union of Hearts 

Sisters of St. Joseph . . . 



Sisters of the 
Hearts 



Sacred 



Convent of St. Catherine of 

Sienna, Park Street, 
Fall River, Mass. 
Convent of Mt. St. Mary's, 

Fall River, Mass. 
Provincial House, 

466 Prospect Street, 
Fall River, Mass. 
Convent of the Sisters of St. 

Joseph, Fall River, Mass. 
Sacred Heart Convent, 

Fairhaven, Mass. 



Diocese 

of 

Hartford, 

Conn. 



Diocese 

of 

Manchester 

K H 



Sisters of the Holy Ghost 



Sisters of Mercy .... 
Sisters of St. Joseph 



,{ 



Sisters of Mercy. 



Convent of the Holy Ghost, 
118 Main Street, 
Hartford, Conn. 
Mt. St. Joseph's Convent of 

Mercy, Hartford, Conn. 
Convent of Mary Immaculate, 
(Provincial House), 
Hartford, Conn. 



Mt. St. Mary's Convent, 
Manchester, 

New Hampshire. 



Diocese 

of 

Portland, 

Me. 



Diocese 
of 
Providen 



Sisters of Mercy. 
Ursuline Sisters . 



iocese . 

OF [ 

vidence, i Sisters of Mercy, 

r. i. i 



Convent of the Sisters of 
Mercy, Stevens Avenue, 
Portland, Maine. 

Ursuline Convent, 
Waterville, Maine. 



St. Francis Xavier's Convent, 
Broad Street, Providence, 
Rhode Island. 



Sisters of St. Joseph . . . 
Sisters of the Presenta- 

< «j& ' 'of" -Charily- "of 

Providence 

Sisters of Mercy 



Diocese 
of 



Convent of the Sisters of St. 

Joseph, Springfield, Mass. 
St. Bernard's Convent, 

Fitchburg, Mass. 
Holy Family Institute, 

Brightside, Holyoke, Mass. 
St. Gabriel's Convent of Mercy, 

46 High Street, 
Worcester, Mass. 



346 



MOTHER-HOUSES AND NOVITIATES 



PROVINCE OF CHICAGO 



f Benedictine Sisters 



The 

Archdiocese 

of 

Chicago 



Sisters of St. Casimir. 



Poor Clares, 



Franciscan Sisters of St. 
Kunegunda 

Hospital Sisters of St. 
Joseph 



Sisters of Mercy. 



Sisters of the Resurrec- 
tion 



Little Sisters 
Poor 



of the 



Sisters of the Holy Fam- 
ily of Nazareth 

Visitation Nuns 



Sisters of St. Francis of 
Mary Immaculate .... 

Franciscan Sisters of the 

Sacred Heart 

Sisters of St. Joseph . . . 

Religious of the Sacred 

Heart 

(Province of Chicago) 



St. Scholastica's Convent, 
7430 Ridge Blvd., Rogers's 
Park, Chicago, Illinois. 
St. Casimir's Institute, 

Sixty-seventh and Rockwell 
Streets, Chicago, Illinois. 
Monastery of the Poor Clares, 
Fifty-Third and Laflin Sts., 
Chicago, Illinois. 
Franciscan Convent. 

59 West Fifteenth Street, 
Chicago Heights, Chicago. 
St. Bernard's Hotel Dieu, 
6337 Harvard Avenue, 
Chicago, Illinois. 
Convent of Our Lady of Mercy, 
Forty-ninth St. and Cottage 
Grove, Chicago, Illinois. 
Convent of the Resurrection, 
1849 North Hermitage Ave., 
Chicago, Illinois. 
Provincial House for the West, 
Fullerton and Sheffield Aves. 
Chicago, Illinois. 
Holy Family Convent, 

Desplaines, Illinois. 
Visitation Convent, 
Ridge Avenue, 

Evanston, Illinois. 
St. Francis' Convent, 
220 Plainfield Avenue, 
Joliet, Illinois. 
St. Joseph's Hospital, 

Joliet, Illinois. 
St. Joseph's Institute, 
LaGrange, Illinois. 
Sacred Heart Convent, 
Lake Forest, Illinois. 





f Sisters of the Precious 


Convent of the Precious Blood, 




Blood 


Alton, Illinois. 




Ursuline Sisters 


Ursuline Convent, 


Diocese 




Alton, Illinois. 


of H 


Sisters of St. Dominic . . . 


Convent of Our Lady of the 


Alton, 




Sacred Heart, West Spring- 


III. 




field, Illinois. 




Hospital Sisters of St. 


St. John's Hospital, 




L Francis 


Provincial House, 
Springfield, Illinois. 


Diocese 


r 




of 


Sisters of the Most 


Convent of the Precious Blood, 


Belleville, 


Precious Blood 


Ruma, Illinois. 


III. 


. 





IN THE UNITED STATES 



347 



Diocese 

of 

Peoria, 

III. 



Diocese 

of 

Rockfokd, 

III. 



Sisters of St. Francis of Franciscan Convent, 
the Immaculate Con- 405 Smith Street, 

ception Peoria, Illinois. 

Sisters, Servants of the Holy Family Convent, 

Sacred Heart of Mary Beaverton, P. 0., Illinois. 

Sisters of St. Benedict St. Mary's Convent, 
(English Benedictines) Nauvoo, Illinois. 

Sisters of Mercy St. Joseph's Convent, 

Ottawa, Illinois. 
Franciscan Sisters of the St. Anthony's Hospital, 
Immaculate Conception Rock Island, Illinois. 

Visitation Nuns Villa de Chantal, 

Twentieth St. and 12th Ave. 
Rock Island, Illinois. 

Sisters of Mercy St. Joseph's Infirmary, 

35 West Park Avenue, 
Aurora, Illinois. 



PROVINCE OF CINCINNATI 



The 
Archdiocese 

of 
Cincinnati. 



f Sisters of Mercy 1409 Freeman Avenue, 

Cincinnati, Ohio. 
Sisters of Notre Dame 

of Namur 

Sisters of the Good 

Shepherd 

Sisters of the Poor of St. 
Francis 



Sisters of the Precious 
Blood 

Sisters of Charity of 
Cincinnati 



Ursuline Sisters 



321 East Sixth Avenue, 
Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Monastery of Our Lady of the 
Woods, Carthage, Ohio. 

St. Clara's Convent, 

Hartwell, Hamilton Countv, 
Ohio. 

Convent Mary Help of Chris- 
tians, Maria Stein, Ohio. 

Convent of the Sisters of 
Charity, Mt. St. Joseph, 
Hamilton County, Ohio. 

Ursuline Convent, 

St. Martin, Brown County, 
Ohio. 



Diocese 

of 

Cleveland, 

Ohio. 



Sisters of Notre Dame Notre Dame Convent, 

of Cleveland 1736 Superior Avenue, 

Cleveland, Ohio. 

Ursuline Sisters Ursuline Convent, 

East Fifty-fifth St. and Sco- 

ville Ave., Cleveland, Ohio. 

Sisters of Charity of St. Convent of Sisters of Charity, 

Augustine Lakewood, Cuyahoga County, 

Ohio. 
Sisters of the Holy Hu- Villa Maria, Lawrence Countv, 

mility of Mary Pa. (P. 0. address, R. D., 

Lowellville, Ohio.) 
Sisters of St. Joseph . . . Convent of Sisters of St. Jo- 
seph, Riverside Ave., West 
Park, Cuyahoga Co., Ohio. 

Poor Clares Monastery of St. Clare of the 

Blessed Sacrament, Riverside 
Avenue, West Park, Ohio. 



I 



1 



348 



MOTHER-HOUSES AND NOVITIATES 



Diocese 

of 

Columbus, 

Ohio. 



Diocese 

of 

Covington, 

Ky. 



Diocese 

of 

Detroit, 

Mich. 



Diocese 

of 

Fort Wayne, 

Ind. 



Diocese 

OF 

Grand Rapids, 
Mich. 



Diocese 

of 

Indianapolis, 

Ind. 



{ 



Dominican Sisters . 



f Benedictine Sisters. 



^ Visitation Nuns . 



Sisters of Providence of 
Kentucky 



r Dominican Sisters of the 
Perpetual Adoration. . 

Felician Sisters ( Polish 
Franciscans) 

" Sisters of St. Dominic . . 



Sisters Servants of the 
Immaculate Heart of 
Mary 

Sisters of St. Joseph. . . 

Poor Handmaids of Jesus 
Christ 

Sisters of St. Francis of 
the Perpetual Adora- 
tion 

Sisters of the Holy 

Cross 

I Sisters of St. Joseph . . . 



St. Mary's of the Springs, 
Shepard P. O., Franklin Co. 
(Columbus), Ohio. 

St. Walburg's Monastery, 
72 East Twelfth Street, 
Covington, Kentucky. 
Visitation Convent, 
Cardome, Georgetown, 
Kentucky. 
Mt. St. Martin's Convent, 
Newport, Kentucky. 

Monastery of the Blessed Sac- 
rament, Oakland Avenue and 
Boston Blvd., Detroit, Mich. 

Western Provincial House, 
St. Aubin and Canfield Ave., 
Detroit, Michigan. 

St. Joseph's Convent, 
Adrian, Michigan. 

St. Mary's Convent, 
Monroe, Michigan. 

Convent of the Holy Family, 
Nazareth, Michigan. 

St. Joseph's Hospital, 

Main Street and Broadway, 

Ft. Wayne, Indiana. 
St. Elizabeth's Hospital, 

Fifteenth Street, 
LaFayette, Indiana. 
St. Mary's Convent, 

Notre Dame, Indiana. 
St. Joseph's Convent, 

Tipton, Indiana. 



' Sisters of St. Dominic . . Sacred Heart Convent, 

69 Ransom Street, 

Grand Rapids, Michigan. 

Sisters of Mercy Convent of Mercy, 

Big Rapids, Michigan. 

Ursuline Sisters Ursuline Convent, 

Sanford Street, 
Muskegon, Michigan. 

Poor Clares Monastery of St. Clare, 

Kentucky Avenue, 
Evansville, Indiana. 
Sisters of St. Benedict. . Convent of the Immaculate 

Conception, 

Ferdinand, Indiana. 
Sisters of St. Francis . . . Franciscan Convent, 

Oldenburg, Indiana. 
Sisters of Providence ... St. Mary-of-the-Woods, 

St. Mary's P. 0., 

Vigo County, Indiana. 



IN THE UNITED STATES 



349 



Diocese 

of 

Louisville, 

Ky. 



f Sisters of Mercy St. Catharine 's Convent, 

1172 East Broadway, 
Louisville, Kentucky. 
Ursuline Sisters Ursuline Convent of the Im- 
maculate Conception, 

806 East Chestnut Street, 
Louisville, Kentucky. 

"| Sisters of Loretto Loretto Convent, 

Nerinx P. 0., Loretto, 
Kentucky. 
Nazareth Convent, 

Nelson County, Nazareth, 
Kentucky. 
St. Catharine of Sienna Con- 
vent, 

Springfield, Kentucky. 



Sisters of Charity of 
Nazareth 

Dominican Sisters 



Diocese 

of 

Nashville, 

Tenn. 



Dominican Sisters . 
Sisters of Mercy. . 



St. Cecilia's Convent, 
Nashville, Tennessee. 

St. Bernard's Convent, 
Nashville, Tennessee. 



Diocese 

of 

Toledo, 

Ohio. 



Ursuline Sisters 

Sisters of St. Francis. 



Ursuline Convent, 

Cherry Street, Toledo, Ohio. 
St. Francis' Convent, 

Tiffin, Ohio. 



PROVINCE OF DUBUQUE 



The 

Archdiocese 

of 

Dubuque 



f Sisters of Charity of the 
Blessed Virgin Mary. 



Sisters of St. 
(German) 



Francis 



Sisters of 
Ghost . . 



the Holv 



ancis of Ai 
ly GhosT^ 



St. Joseph's Convent of Mt. 
Carmel, 

Dubuque, Iowa. 
Convent of St. Francis pf As- 
sisium, 

Dubuque, Iowa. 
Convent of the Holy vjrnost, ■ 
Bluff and Third Streets, 
West Dubuque, Iowa. 

Sisters of the Presenta- Mt. Loretto Convent, 
tion of the Blessed Wilde Street, 

Virgin Mary Dubuque, Iowa. 

Visitation Nuns Visitation Convent, 

Alta Vista Street and Julian 
Avenue, Dubuque, Iowa. 



Sisters of Mercy 



Convent of the Sisters of 
Mercy, West Third Street, 
Dubuque, Iowa. 

Convent of the Sacred Heart, 

Cedar Rapids, Iowa. 

Convent of Our Lady of Mercy, 
Independence, Iowa. 



350 



MOTHER-HOUSES AND NOVITIATES 



f Carmelite Nuns, 



Diocese 

of 

Davenport, 

Iowa 



Diocese 

of 

Des Moines, 

Iowa 

Diocese 

of 

Lincoln, 

Neb. 

Diocese 

of 

Omaha, 

Neb. 

Diocese 

of 

Sioux City, 

Iowa 



The 
Archdiocese 

OF 

Milwaukee 



Sisters of Mercy, 



Sisters of St. Francis of 

the Sacred Heart 

Sisters of St. Francis . . . 

Sisters of the Holy Hu- 
mility of Mary 



Sisters of Mercy 



Ursuline Sisters of Naz- 
areth 



Poor Clares 



Sisters of Mercy. 



Sisters of St. Benedict. 



Servants of Mary. 



Mt. Carmel Monastery, 

Fifteenth and Brady Streets, 
Davenport, Iowa. 
St. Joseph's Convent, 

Davenport, Iowa. 
Mercy Hospital, 

Burlington, Iowa. 
Mt. St. Clare's Convent, 

Clinton, Iowa. 
St. Joseph's Convent, 

Ottumwa, Iowa. 

St. Bernard's Convent, 
Council Bluffs, Iowa. 



Nazareth Convent, 
York, Nebraska. 

Franciscan Monastery of St. 

Clare, Twenty-ninth and 

Hamilton Sts., Omaha, Neb. 

Convent of Our Lady of Mercy, 

1424 Castellar Street, 

Omaha, Nebraska. 

St. Vincent's Hospital, 

Pierce and Seventh Streets, 
Sioux City, Iowa. 
Convent of Mt. St, Mary, 

Cherokee, Iowa. 



PROVINCE OF MILWAUKEE 



f Sisters of the Divine 
Saviour 

Felician Sisters 

( Northwestern Prov- 
ince. ) 

Sisters of St. Francis of 
Assisi 



School Sisters 
Francis 



of St. 



-> Sisters of Mercy. 



School Sisters of Notre 

Dame 

Sisters of St. Agnes .... 



Sisters of St. Dominic . . 

( Congregation of St. 

Catherine of Sienna ) . 
Dominican Sisters of the 

Perpetual Eosary 



St. Mary's Convent, 

Thirty-fifth and Center Sts., 
Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 
Convent of Mother of Good 
Counsel, Thirteenth and Eu- 
clid Aves., Milwaukee, Wis. 
St. Francis' Convent, 
St. Francis P. O., 

Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 
St. Joseph's Convent, 
Greenfield and Twenty-second 
Aves., Milwaukee, Wis. 
Convent of Our Lady of Mercy, 
705 National Avenue, 
Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 
Notre Dame Convent, 

676 Milwaukee St., Milwaukee. 
St. Agnes Convent, 

380 East Division Street, 
Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. 
Convent of St. Catherine of 
Sienna, 

Racine, Wisconsin. 
Dominican Monastery, 
St. Martin's, Route 20, 
Hales Corners, Wisconsin. 



IN THE UNITED STATES 



351 



Diocese 

of 

Greex Bay 

Wis. 



f Sisters of Third Order of 
St. Francis 

Franciscan Sisters of 
Christian Charity .... 

Polish Sisters of St. Jo- 
seph 



St. Francis Convent, 

Bay Settlement, R. F. D. 1 3 
Green Bay, Wisconsin. 
Holy Family Convent, 
Manitowoc, R. F. D. 1, 
Alverno, Wisconsin. 
St. Joseph's Convent, 

Steven's Point, Wisconsin. 



Diocese 

of 

La Crosse, 

Wis. 



Diocese 

of 

Marquette, 

Mich. 

Diocese 

of 

Superior, 

Wis. 



The 
Archdiocese 

of 
New Orleans 



f Franciscan Sisters of the 
Perpetual Adoration . . 

Dominican Sisters of the 
Perpetual Rosary 

Sisters of the Sorrowful 
Mother 

Dominican Sisters 

( Congregation of the 
Most Holy Rosary). 



Ursuline Sisters 



Sisters of St. Joseph . . 



St. Rose's Convent, 

709 South Ninth Street, 
LaCrosse, Wisconsin. 
St. Dominic's Monastery, 

LaCrosse P. 0., R. R. 3, 
Campbell, Wisconsin. 
St. Mary's Convent, 

Marshfield, Wisconsin. \ 
St. Clara's Convent, 

Sinsinawa, Wisconsin. 



Ursuline Convent, 
St. Ignace, Michigan. 

St. Joseph's Convent, 
1926 Iowa Avenue, 
Superior, Wisconsin. 



PROVINCE OF NEW ORLEANS 

f Carmelite Nuns Monastery of St. Joseph and 

St. Teresa, 1236 North Ram- 
part St., New Orleans, La. 

Poor Clares St. Clare's Monastery, 

6216 Magazine Street, 
New Orleans, Louisana. 

Dominican Sisters Dominican Convent, 

St. Charles Ave. and Broad- 
way, New Orleans, La. 
Holy Family Convent, 
717 Orleans Street, 
New Orleans, Louisiana. 

Sisters Marianites of the Marianite Convent, 

Holy Cross Rampart and Congress Sts., 

New Orleans, Louisiana. 

Sisters of Mercy Convent of Our Lady of Mercy, 

New Orleans, Louisiana. 

Convent of Mt. Carmel, 
200 Bayou Road, 

New Orleans, Louisiana. 
Sisters of Mt. Carmel.. 1 Mt. Carmel Novitiate, 

1220 Hospital Street, 
New Orleans, Louisiana. 



Sisters of the Holy Fam- 
ily (colored Sisters) 



352 



MOTHER-HOUSES AND NOVITIATES 



The 
Archdiocese 

of 
New Orleans 



f School Sisters of Notre Southern Provincial House, 

Dame Corner Josephine and Laurel 

Sts., New Orleans, La. 
Sisters of Our Lady of Convent of Our Lady of 

Lourdes Lourdes, 1027 North White 

Street, New Orleans, La. 
Sisters of St. Joseph ... St. Joseph's Convent, 

2116 Ursuline Avenue, 
New Orleans, Louisiana. 
Sisters of the Perpetual Convent of Perpetual Adora- 

Adoration tion, 2321 Marais Street, 

New Orleans, Louisiana. 

Ursuline Sisters Ursuline Convent, 

4580 Dauphine Street, 
New Orleans, Louisiana. 

Benedictine Sisters St. Scholastica's Convent, 

Covington, Louisiana. 
Sisters of the Immacu- St. Philomena's Convent, 

late Conception Labadieville, Louisiana. 

French Benedictine Sis- St. Gertrude's Convent, 
ters St. Benedict, Louisiana. 



Diocese 

of 

Alexandria, 

La. 



Daughters of the Cross. 



St. Vincent's Convent, 

Fairfield, Shreveport P. 0., 
Louisiana. 



Diocese 

of 

Dallas, 

Tex. 



Ursuline Sisters. 



Ursuline Convent, 
Dallas, Texas. 



Diocese 

of 

Galveston, 

Tex. 



Diocese 

of 

Little Rock, 

Abk. 



Diocese 

OF 

Mobile, 
Ala. 



Diocese 

of 

Natchez, 

Miss. 



Congregation of Sisters St. Mary's Infirmary, 
of Charity of the In- Galveston, Texas. 

carnate Word 

Sisters of St. Dominic . . Sacred Heart Convent, 

Galveston, Texas. 

Sisters of Mercy St. Mary's Convent, 

Little Rock, Arkansas. 

White Benedictine Sis- Hol y Angel's Convent, 
ters (Congregation of Jonesboro, Arkansas. 

Mt. Olive) 

Benedictine Sisters g t . Scholastica's Convent, 

Shoal Creek, Arkansas. 

Sisters of Mercy Convent of the Sisters 

Mercy, 

Mobile, Alabama. 

Visitation Nuns Visitation Convent, 

Spring Hill Avenue. 
Mobile, Alabama. 

Sisters of Mercy Convent of Sisters of Mercy, 

Vicksburg, Mississippi. 



of 






IN THE UNITED STATES 



353 



Diocese 

of 

Oklahoma, 

Okla. 



Diocese 

of 

San Antonio, 

Tex. 



VlCARIATE- 

Apostolic 

OF 

Brownsville, 
Tex. 



Sisters of Mercy. 



Benedictine Sisters .... 
( Congregation of Our 
Lady of Belloc.) 

f Sisters of Charity of the 
Incarnate Word 

Sisters of Divine Provi- 
dence 

Congregation of Servants 
of the Holy Ghost 



Mt. St. Mary's, 
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. 
Nazareth Convent, 

Sacred Heart, Oklahoma. 



Convent of the Incarnate 
Word, Alamo Heights, 
San Antonio, Texas. 
Convent of Divine Providence, 

San Antonio, Texas. 
Convent of Our Lady of Light. 
203 Nolan Street, 
San Antonio, Texas. 
St. Theresa's Convent, 
310 Dwyer Street, 
San Antonio, Texas. 
Ursuline Convent, 
101 Augusta Street, 
San Antonio, Texas. 



Sisters of the Incarnate incarnate Word Convent, 
Word and Blessed Sac- Brownsville, Texas. 

rament 

Sisters of Mercy Convent at Mercy Hospital, 

Laredo, Texas. 

Ursuline Sisters Ursuline Convent, 

Laredo, Texas. 



Sisters of St. 
( Spanish ) 

Ursuline Sisters. 



Theresa 



PROVINCE OF NEW YORK 



The 
Archdiocese 

of 
New York. 



I 



f Little Sisters of the As- 
sumption 

Sisters of Bon Secours . . 

Sisters of the Cenaele . . . 
Sisters of Charity 



Dominican Sisters , 



310-312 East Fifteenth Street, 

New York City, N. Y. 
1195 Lexington Avenue, 

New York City, N. Y. 
St. Regis' Convent, 

628 West 140th Street, 
New York City, N. Y. 
Mt. St. Vincent-on-the-Hudson, 
New York City, N. Y. 

137-143 Second Street, 
New York City, N. Y. 

329-335 East Sixty-third St., 
New York City, N. Y. 

Dominican Sisters of the 140 W 7 est Sixty-first Street, 

Sick Poor New York City, N. Y. 

Sisters of St. Dorothy. . . 223 Chrystie Street, 

New York City, N. Y. 
Franciscan Missionaries 225 East Forty-fifth Street, 

of Mary New York City, N. Y. 

Sisters of the Good N. Y. Provincial House, 

Shepherd Ninetieth St. and East River, 

New York City, N. Y. 
Helpers of the Holy 114 East Eighty-sixth Street, 

Souls New York City, N. Y. 



354 



MOTHER-HOUSES AND NOVITIATES 



f Sisters of Mercy . 



The 

Archdiocese 

of 
New York. 



Missionary Sisters of the 
Sacred Heart 

Sisters of the Presenta- 
tion Blessed Virgin 
Mary 

Sisters of the Repara- 
trice 

Religious of the Sacred 
Heart (Eastern Pro- 
vincial House) 

Sisters of St. Ursula of 
the Blessed Virgin 
Mary 



Ursuline Sisters , 



Visitation Convent, 



Sisters of St. Dominie 



Sisters of the Atonement 



Sisters of the Blessed 
Sacrament 

Sisters of the Divine 
Compassion 

Sisters of St. Dominic . . . 

Sisters of St. Dominic . . 

( Congregation St. Rose 

of Lima) 
Sisters of Third Order of 

St. Dominic 

Sisters of St. Francis . . 



Missionary Sisters of 
Third Order of St. 
Francis 

Marianite Sisters of the 
Holy Cross 



St. Catherine's Convent of 
Mercy, 1075 Madison Ave., 
Corner Eighty-first Street, 
New York City, N. Y. 
Provincial House, 

Ft. Washington Avenue and 
190th St., New York City. 
St. Michael's Convent, 

419 West Thirty-third St., 
New York City, N. Y. 

16 East Twenty-ninth Street, 
New York City, N. Y. 

Sacred Heart Convent, 
Manhattanville, 

New York City, N. Y. 

523 West 142nd Street, 
New York City, N. Y. 



Ursuline Convent, 

343 East 137th Street, 
New York City, N. Y. 
Mt. St. Ursula, 
Bedford Park, 

New York City, N. Y. 

Visitation Convent, 
Riverdale-on-Hudson, 
New York City, N. Y. 
Corpus Christi Monastery, 
Hunt *s Point, New York 
City, N. Y. 

St. Francis' Convent, 

Gray moor, Putnam County, 
New York. 
Blessed Sacrament Convent, 

Yonkers, New York. 
Convent of the Divine Com- 
passion, 

White Plains, New York. 
Dominican Convent, 

Blauvelt, New York. 
Rosary Hill Home, 
Hawthorne, 

Westchester County, N. Y. 
Mt. St. Mary's, 

Newburgh, New York. 
St. Clara's Convent, 
Mt. Hope, 

Westchester County, N. Y. 

Mt. St. Francis, 

Peekskill, New York. 

Marianite Convent, 

Tottenville, Staten Island, 
New York. 



IN THE UNITED STATES 



355 



The f Ladies of the Sacred 
Archdiocese Heart of Mary 



OF 

New York. 



Ursuline Sisters 



"Marymount," 
Tarrytown, N. Y. 

Northern Provincial Novitiate, 
Middletown, New York. 



Diocese 

of 

Buffalo, 

N.Y. 



Dominican Sisters 



Diocese 

of 
Albany, 
N. Y. Sisters of Mercy 



Religious of the Sacred 
Heart 



Sisters of St. Joseph 



Diocese 
of 4 

Brooklyn, 
N. Y. 



Monastery M Our Lady of the 
Sacred Heart, 886 Madison 
Avenue, Albany, N. Y. 

Sacred Heart Convent, 

"Kenwood," Albany, N. Y. 

Convent of the Sisters of 
Mercy, Laurence Street, 
Rensselaer, New York. 
Provincial House, 

Fourth and Jackson Streets, 
Troy, New York. 



Sisters Adorers of the Monastery of the Precious 

Precious Blood Blood, Fifty-fourth Street 

and Ft. Hamilton Park- 
way, Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Carmelite Nuns Carmelite Monastery, 

745 St. John's Place, 
Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Sisters of St. Dominic . . Convent of the Holy Cross, 

Montrose and Graham Aves., 
Brooklyn, New York. 
Sisters of the Infant 439 Henry Street, 

Jesus Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Sisters of Mercy St. Francis' Convent, 

273 Willoughby Avenue, 
Brooklyn, New York. 
Little Sisters of the American Provincial House, 

Poor Bushwick and Dekalb Aves., 

Brooklyn, New York. 

Visitation Nuns Visitation Convent, 

Ridge Blvd. and Eighty-ninth 
Street, Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Sisters of St. Dominic . . Dominican Novitiate, 

Amityville, New York. 

Sisters of St. Joseph . . . St. Joseph's Convent, 

Brentwood, 

Long Island, N. Y. 
Little Sisters of the St. Ann's Novitiate, 
Poor Queens, Queen County, N. Y. 

Dominican Sisters of the Dominican Monastery, 

Perpetual Rosary 335 Doat Street, 

Buffalo, New York. 
Felieian Sisters of St. American Provincial House, 

Francis William and Kennedy Sts., 

East Buffalo, N. Y. 



356 



MOTHER-HOUSES AND NOVITIATES 



Diocese 

of 

Buffalo, 

N. Y. 



f Sisters of the Third Or- 
der of St. Francis .... 

Franciscan Sisters, Minor 
Conventuals 

Sisters of St. Joseph... 



Sisters of Mercy 



4 Sisters of Our Lady of 
Charity of Refuge 

Sisters of St. Francis.. 

Sisters of Third Order of 

St. Francis 

Sisters of St. Mary 



Sisters of St. Francis . . . 



St. Francis' Convent, 
337 Pine Street, 
Buffalo, New York. 
St. Joseph's Convent, 
179 Clark Street, 
Buffalo, New York. 
Convent of Mt. St. Joseph, 
2064 Main Street, 
Buffalo, New York. 
Mt. Mercy, 

1475 Abbott Road, 
Buffalo, New York. 
Monastery of Our Lady, 
485 Best Street, 

Buffalo, New York. 
St. Elizabeth's Convent, 
Allegany, New York. 
Novitiate, St. Francis Convent, 

Gardenville, New York. 
American Provincial House, 
St. Joseph's Convent, 
Lockport, New York. 
Convent of Our Lady of the 
Sacred Heart, 

Stella Niagara, New York. 



Diocese 

of 

Newabk, 

N.J. 



' Sisters of St. Dominic. 



Sisters of St. Benedict.. 

Sisters of Charity of 

New Jersey 

Sisters of St. Dominic . . 



Dominican Sisters of the 
Perpetual Rosary 



Sisters of St. Joseph of 
Peace 



St. Dominic's Convent, 

Thirteenth Avenue, 
Newark, New Jersey. 
St. Walburga's Convent, 

Elizabeth, New Jersey. 
Convent of St. Elizabeth, 

Convent Station, New Jersey. 
St. Dominic's Convent, 

254 First Avenue, 

Jersey City, New Jersey. 
Dominican Monastery, 

Hill, Morris and Traphagen 

Sts., West Hoboken, N. J. 

St. Joseph's Convent, 
81 York Street, 
Jersey City, N. J. 
Novitiate of Sisters of St. Jo- 
seph of Peace, 

Englewood, New Jersey. 



Diocese 

of 

Ogdensburg, 

N. Y. 



" Sisters of Mercy 

Sisters of St. Joseph. 



Mercy Convent, 

Sanitarium Gabriels, 
Gabriels, New York. 
Convent of the Immaculate 
Heart, 

Watertown, New York. 



Diocese 

of 

Rochester, 

N.Y. 

Diocese 

of 

Syracuse, 

N.Y. 



Diocese 

of 

Trenton, 

N.J. 



The 
Archdiocese 

of 
Oregon City, 



Diocese 

of 

Baker City, 

Ore. 

Diocese 

of 
Boise, 
Idaho. 

Diocese 

OF 

Great Falls, 
Mont. 



IN THE UNITED STATES 357 

Sisters of Mercy Convent of Sisters of Mercy, 

South Street, 

Rochester, New York. 
Sisters of St. Joseph Convent of Sisters of St. Jo- 
seph, Frank and Jay Streets, 
Rochester, New York. 

Sisters of Third Order of St. Anthony's Convent, 

St. Frances North Third and Court Sts., 

Syracuse, New York. 

Sisters, Adorers of the Monastery of the Precious 

Precious Blood Blood, 

Trenton, New Jersey. 

Poor Clares Monastery of St. Clare, 

Bordentown, New Jersey. 

Dominican Sisters of the Dominican Monastery, 

Perpetual Rosary 1500 Haddon Avenue, 

Camden, New Jersey. 

Sisters of St. Joseph Convent of Sisters of St. Jo- 
seph, 

Lakewood, New Jersey. 

Sisters of Mercy Mt. St. Mary's Convent of 

Mercy, North Plainfield, 
New Jersey. 

PROVINCE OF OREGON 

Sisters, Adorers of the Monastery of the Precious 

Precious Blood Blood, Montavilla Station, 

Portland, Oregon. 
Sisters of St. Benedict . . Convent of Our Lady, "Queen 

of Angels," 

Mount Angel, Oregon. 
Sisters of the Holy Provincial House, 
Names of Jesus and Oswego, Oregon. 

Mary 

Sisters of Mercy. Convent of the Sisters of 

Mercy, 

Park Place, Oregon. 

Sisters of St. Mary St. Mary's Convent, 

Beaverton P. O., 

St. Mary's, Oregon. 

Western Provincial Novitiate, 
Sisters of St. Francis... St. Francis Convent, 

Pendleton, Oregon. 



Sisters of St. Benedict. 



Ursuline Sisters. 



St. Gertrude's Convent, 
Cottonwood, Idaho. 



Ursuline Convent, 
Mount Angela, 

Great Falls, Montana. 



358 



MOTHER-HOUSES AND NOVITIATES 



Diocese 

of 

Helena, 

Mont. 



Diocese 

of 

Seattle, 

Wash. 



Sisters of Charity of 
Providence 



Carmelite Nuns . 



Sisters of the Third Or- 
der of St. Dominic. . . . 



Ladies Catechists (secu- 
lar missionaries ) 

Visitation Nuns 



Sisters of Charity of 
Providence 



Provincial House, 

Convent of the Sacred Heart, 
Missoula, Montana. 

Carmelite Monastery, 

Eighteenth Ave. and Howell 
St., Seattle, Washington. 

Dominican Convent, 
Aberdeen, Washington. 

Dominican Convent, 
Tacoma, Washington. 

St. Mary's Convent, 
Mission, Washington. 

Visitation Convent, 

South Eighteenth and Yaki- 
ma Sts., Tacoma, Wash. 

Provincial House, 

Vancouver, Washington. 






PROVINCE OF PHILADELPHIA 



Carmelite Nuns. 



The 
Aechdiocese 

OF 

Philadelphia. 



Diocese 

of 
Altoona, 

Pa. 



Sisters of Third Order 
of St. Francis 

Sisters of the Good 
Shepherd 

Sisters of St. Joseph . . . 



Sisters of the Blessed 
Sacrament for Indians 
and Colored People. . . 

Sisters of the Third Or- 
der of St. Francis .... 

Sisters of Mercy 

Bernardine Sisters of St. 
Francis (Polish) 

Sisters of the Holy Child 
Jesus 

Sisters Servants of the 
Immaculate Heart of 
Mary 



Sisters of Mercy. 



Carmelite Monastery, 

Sixty-sixth Ave. and York 
Road, Oak Lane, 
Philadelphia, Pa. 
Eastern Provincial House, 
505 Reed Street, 
Philadelphia, Pa. 
Philadelphia Provincial House, 
Fairmount Avenue, 
Philadelphia, Pa. 
Mt. St. Joseph's Convent, 
Chestnut Hill, 
Philadelphia, Pa. 
St. Elizabeth's Convent, 
Cornwells, Buck's County, 
Maud P. O., Pennsylvania. 
Convent of Our Lady of Angels, 

Glen Riddle, Pa. 
"Mater Misericordiae" Con- 
vent, Merion, Pennsylvania. 
Bernardine Sisters, 
Franciscan Convent, 
Reading, Pennsylvania. 
Convent of the Holy Child, 
Sharon Hill, Pennsylvania. 

Villa Maria Convent, 

West Chester, Pennsylvania. 



Mt. Aloysius' Convent of Mer- 
cy, Cresson, Pennsylvania. 



IN THE UNITED STATES 



359 



Diocese 

of 

Erie, 

Pa. 



Sisters of St. Benedict. 



St. Benedict's Convent, 
East Ninth Street, 
Erie, Pennsylvania. 
St. Joseph's Convent, 
St. Mary's, Elk County, 
Pennsylvania. 



Sisters of St. Joseph ... St. Joseph's Convent, 

Villa Maria, Erie, Pa. 

[ Sisters of Mercv. St. Joseph's Convent, 

Titusville, Pennsylvania. 



Diocese 

of 

Harrisburg, 

Pa. 



Sisters of Mercy St. Genevieve's Convent, 

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. 



Diocese 

of 

Pittsburg, 

Pa. 



Sisters of St. Benedict . . 



Sisters of Divine Provi- 
dence 



Sisters of Our Lady of 
Charity of Refuge H 
(Good Shepherd) .... 



St. Mary's Convent, 

832 North Canal Street, 
Allegheny Station, 
Pittsburg, Pa. 
Mt. Immaculata Convent. 
Lincoln Ave., East End, 
Pittsburg, Pa. 

Convent of the Good Shepherd, 
Lincoln Ave. East End, 
Pittsburg, Pa. 

Monastery of Our Lady of 
Charity, Troy Hill, 

North Side, Pittsburg, Pa. 



Sisters of Mercy St. Mary's Convent, Mt. Mercy, 

3333 Fifth Avenue, 
Pittsburg, Pa. 

Ursuline Sisters Ursuline Convent, 

Wmnebiddle, near Penn Ave., 
Pittsburg, Pa. 



Sisters of St. Joseph . . . 
Slovak Sisters of Charity 

Daughters of the Cross 

and Passion 

(Passionist Nuns.) 

Sisters of Charity 

Sisters of St. Francis . . . 



Mt. Gallitzen Convent, 
Baden, Pennsylvania. 

St. Michael's Convent, 
Braddock, Pennsylvania. 

Convent of Our Lady of Sor- 
rows, 

Carrick, Pennsylvania. 

St. Joseph's Convent, 

Greensburg, Pennsylvania. 

Mt. Alvernia, 
Millvale Station, 
Pittsburg, Pa. 



360 



MOTHER-HOUSES AND NOVITIATES 



Diocese 

of 

Scbanton, 

Pa. 



The 

Akchdiocese 

of 

St. Louis. 



( Sisters, Servants of the 
Immaculate Heart of 

Mary 

Slovak Sisters of Charity 



Sisters of 
Charity . . 



Christian 



Mt. St. Mary's Convent, 
Adams Avenue, 
Scranton, Pa. 
SS. Cyril and Methodius Novi- 
tiate, Mt. St. Mary's, 
Scranton, Pa. 
Mallinckrodt Convent, 
210 South Mead Street, 
Wilkes-Barre, Pa. 



Sisters of Mercy St. Mary's Convent, 

Wilkes-Barre, Pa. 

PROVINCE OF ST. LOUIS 



Carmelite Nuns . 



Sisters of Charity, St. 
Louis Province 



Franciscan Sisters, 



School Sisters of Notre 
Dame 



Polish Franciscan School 
Sisters 



Sisters of the Good 
Shepherd 

Sisters of St. Joseph... 



Religious of the Sacred 
Heart, Province of St. 
Louis 

Sisters cf St. Mary 



Sisters of Merey. 
Ursuline Sisters . . 



Visitation Nuns 



Sisters of Mercy. 



Sisters of the Precious 
L Blood 



Carmelite Monastery, 

Victor and Eighteenth Sts., 
St. Louis, Missouri. 
St. Vincent's Institution, 
R. R. 29, Wellston Station, 
St. Louis, Missouri. 
Convent at St. Anthony's Hos- 
pital, Grand Ave. and Chip- 
pewa St., St. Louis, Mo. 
Novitiate for Southwestern 
Province, 

Sancta Maria in Ripa, 
Ripa Ave., So. St. Louis, Mo. 
Convent of Our Lady of Per- 
petual Help, 

3419 Gasconade Street, 
St. Louis, Missouri. 
Convent of the Good Shepherd, 
Mt. St. Marine, Gravois Ave., 
St. Louis, Missouri. 
St. Joseph's Convent, 

Minnesota Ave. and Kansas 
Street, St. Louis, Mo. 
Sacred Heart Convent, 
Meramec and Nebraska 
Aves., St. Louis, Mo. 
St. Mary's Home, 
Partridge Avenue, 
St. Louis, Missouri. 
St. Joseph's Convent of Mercy, 
Morgan and Twenty-second 
Sts., St. Louis, Mo. 
Ursuline Convent, 
Twelfth St. and Russell Ave., 
St. Louis, Missouri. 
Visitation Convent, 
Cabanne Place, 

St. Louis, Missouri. 
Novitiate of Sisters of Mercy, 
Eureka P. O., La Barque 
Hills, Missouri. 
St. Mary's Institute, 
Offalon, Missouri. 



IN THE UNITED STATES 



361 



Diocese 

of 

Concordia, 

Kans. 



Diocese 

of 

Kansas City, 

Mo. 



Diocese 

of 

Leavenworth, 

Kans. 



Diocese 

of 

St. Joseph, 

Mo. 



J Sisters of 



St. Joseph 



Sisters of Mercy 



Sisters of Our Lady of 
Sion 

Sisters of Third Order of 

St. Francis 

Sisters of St. Benedict.. 



Visitation Nuns. 



Sisters of Charity 

Sisters of St. Benedict. 
Ursuline Sisters 



Benedictine Sisters of the 

Perpetual Adoration . . 

Sisters of St. Francis . . . 



Convent of the Sisters of St. 
Joseph, 

Concordia, Kansas. 



St. Agnes Convent, 

Hardesty and Scarritt Aves., 
Kansas City, Missouri. 
Convent of Notre Dame de 
Sion, 
Marshall, Missouri 
St. Francis Convent, 
Nevada, Missouri. 
Benedictine Convent, 

Pilot Grove, Missouri. 
St. de Chantal Visitation Con- 
vent, Elfin Dale, 

Springfield, Missouri. 

St. Mary's Convent, 
Leavenworth, Kansas. 

Mt. St. Scholastica's Convent. 
Atchison, Kansas. 

Ursuline Convent, 
Paola, Kansas. 

St. Scholastica's Convent, 

Clyde, Missouri. 
St. Francis Convent, 

Maryville, Missouri. 



Diocese 

of 

Wichita, 

Kans. 



Sisters of St. Joseph... Mt. St. Mary's Convent, 

Wichita, Kansas. 

Sisters of Mercy Convent of Sisters of Mercy, 

Fort Scott, Kansas. 

Sisters of Third Order Dominican Convent, 
St. Dominic Great Bend, Kansas. 



PROVINCE OF ST. PAUL 



The 

Archdiocese 

of 

St. Paul. 



f Sisters of the Good Shep- 
herd 



Sisters of St. Joseph . . . 



St. Paul Provincial 

Monastery of the Good Shep- 
herd, Mt. Eudes, 
St. Paul, Minnesota. 
St. Joseph's Convent, 

Weston and Nelson Avenues, 
St. Paul, Minnesota. 
Visitation Convent, 

Robert St. and University 
Ave., St. Paul, Minnesota. 

Ursuline Sisters Villa Maria Convent, 

Frontenac, Minnesota. 



Visitation Nuns. 



362 



MOTHER-HOUSES AND NOVITIATES 



Diocese 

of 
Duluth, 

Minn. 

Diocese 

of 
Fargo, 
N.D. 



Diocese 

of 

Lead, 

S.D. 

Diocese 

of 

St. Cloud, 

Minn. 

Diocese 

of 

Sioux Falls, 

S.D. 



Sisters of St. Benedict . . 



Villa Sancta Scholastica, 
Duluth, Minnesota. 



Sisters of the Presenta- Sacred Heart Convent, 

tion Fargo, North Dakota. 

Sisters of Mercy Mercy Convent, 

Devil's Lake, North Dakota. 
Ursuline Sisters Ursuline Convent, 

Grand Forks, North Dakota. 

Sisters of St. Bedenict. . St. Martin's Convent, 

Meade County, 

Sturgis, South Dakota. 



Franciscan Sisters of the 
Immaculate Concep- 
tion 

Sisters of St. Benedict . . 



Benedictine Sisters . 



Convent of the Immaculate 

Conception, 

Little Falls, Minnesota. 
St. Benedict's Convent, 

St. Joseph, Minnesota. 



Sacred Heart Convent, 
Yankton, South Dakota. 



Diocese 

of 
Winona, 

Minn. 



Sisters of St. Francis ... St. Francis' Convent, 
(Congregation of Our Rochester, Minnesota. 

Lady of Lourdes) 



The 

Archdiocese 

of 

San 

Francisco. 



PROVINCE OF SAN FRANCISCO 

f Carmelite Nuns Carmelite Monastery, 

Lombard and Hyde Streets, 
San Francisco, California. 
Sisters of the Holy Fam- Holy Family Convent, 

ily 890 Hayes Street, 

San Francisco, California. 



Sisters of Mercy. 



Sisters of the Presenta- 
tion, Blessed Virgin 
Mary 



Sisters of St. Dominic. 



f St. Mary's Convent, 

Hayes and Shrader Streets, 
San Francisco, California. 
St. Gertrude's Convent, 
Rio Vista, California. 

Presentation Convent, 
401 Baker Street, 
San Francisco, Cal. 

Dominican Convent, 

Mission San Jose, 
California. 
Dominican Convent. 

San Rafael, California. 



IN THE UNITED STATES 



363 



The 

Archdiocese 

of 

San 

Francisco. 



Diocese 

of 

Monterey 

and 

Los Angeles, 

Cal. 



Diocese 

of 

Sacramento, 

Cal. 



Diocese 

of 

Salt Lake, 

Utah. 



Sisters of the Holy Convent of the Holy Names, 
Names of Jesus and 1534 Webster Street, 

Mary Oakland, California. 

Sisters of Notre Dame Notre Dame Convent 

of Namur ( Western Novitiate ) , 

San Jose, California. 

Ursuline Sisters Ursuline Convent, 

Corner Tenth and B Streets, 
Santa Rosa, California. 

Sisters of Mercy Convent of Our Lady of Mercy, 

W T est Washington and Con- 
cord Sts. Los Angeles, Cal. 
Sisters of St. Joseph . . . St. Joseph's Convent, 

Slauson and Cypress Streets, 
Los Angeles, California. 
Sisters of the Immacu- Convent of the Immaculate 

late Heart Heart, 

Hollywood, California. 



Sisters of Mercy 



Sisters of Mercy. 



St. Joseph's Convent, 
Eighth and G. Streets, 
Sacramento, California. 

Mt. St. Mary's Convent, 
Grass Valley, California. 

Convent of Our Lady of Mercy, 
Red Bluff, California. 

Convent at Mercy Hospital, 
Salt Lake City, Utah. 



PROVINCE OF SANTA FE 



Diocese 

of 

Denver, 

Col. 



Sisters of Mercy. 



Convent at Mercy Hospital, 
Corner Sixteenth and Mil- 
waukee Sts., Denver, Col. 



Diocese 

of 

Tucson, 

Ariz. 



Sisters of Mercy 



Convent of Mercy, 

Silver City, New Mexico. 



Eecapitulatory comment. Every Archdiocese of the United States, with 
the exception of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, is the site of one or more 
Mother-house, Novitiate or Provincial-house. The same is to be said of 
every diocese in the United States, with the exception of the Dioceses of 
Cheyenne, Wyoming; Crookston, Minnesota; and Bismarck, North Dakota. 



CHRONOLOGICAL INDEX OF RELIGIOUS 
ORDERS OF WOMEN* 

According to their Establishment in the 
United States 

Year Page 

1727- The Ursulines 21 

1790— The Carmelites 28 

1809— Sisters of Charity, Emmitsburg 44 

1812— Sisters of Loretto 50 

1812— Sisters of Charity of Nazareth 58 

1816— Visitation Nuns 64 

1817— Sisters of Charity of Mount St. Vincent 70 

1818— Religious of the Sacred Heart 75 

1822— Dominican Sisters of St. Catharine, Ky 89 

1829— Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati 94 

1829— Oblate Sisters of Providence 102 

1830— Dominican Sisters of St. Mary's of the Springs. . . 102 

1833-Sisters of Charity of the B. V. M 110 

1836-Sisters of St. Joseph 116 

1840— Sisters of Notre Dame of Namur 120 

1840— Sisters of Providence of St. Mary-of -the- Woods . . 128 

1842— Sisters of the Holy Family (Colored Sisters)... 134 

1843— Sisters of the Holy Cross 134 

1843— Sisters of the Good Shepherd 144 

1843— Sisters of Mercy 150 

1844— Sisters of the Most Precious Blood 155 

1845— Sister Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. 160 

1847— School Sisters of Notre Dame 166 

1847— Sisters of St. Joseph in Philadelphia. 179 

1849— Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration 182 

1850— Sisters of Charity of St. Augustine 191 

1850— Dominican Sisters of Holy Name Cong, in Cal. . . . 191 

*This chronological index has reference only to those Religious 
Orders having specific mention in this work. 

364 



CHRONOLOGICAL INDEX 365 

Tear Page 

1851— Sisters of St. Francis (Oldenburg) 196 

1852— Benedictine Nuns 198 

1853— Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word and B. S. 199 

1854— Sisters of the Holy Humility of Mary 200 

1854— Sisters of the Presentation of the B. V. M 200 

1855— Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis 201 

1858— Sisters of the Third Order of St. Dominic (Ra- 
cine) 202 

1858- Sisters of the Poor of St. Francis 209 

1858— The Ursulines in Kentucky 214 

1859— Sisters of Charity of New Jersey 218 

1862— Sisters of the Holy Child Jesus 226 

1863— Sisters of St. Mary (Buffalo) 232 

1866— Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word 232 

1866— Franciscan Sisters of the Order of Mt. Carmel... 235 

1866-Sisters of Divine Providence 239 

1858— Sisters of St. Francis (Clinton) 239 

1868— Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ 241 

1868— Little Sisters of the Poor 243 

1869— Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis (Tiffin) . 244 

1870— Sisters of Saint Ann 244 

1872-Sisters of St. Mary 245 

1872— Sisters of Perpetual Adoration of the B. S 245 

1873- Sisters of Christian Charity 250 

1874-Benedictine Sisters of Mt. Olive 258 

1874— Sisters of St. Francis and Christian Charity 262 

1874— Sisters of Notre Dame of Cleveland 265 

1874— Sisters of Providence of Charity 270 

1875-The Poor Clares 271 

1875— Sisters of St. Francis (Dubuque) 276 

1875— Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration 278 

1877— Ladies of the Sacred Heart of Mary 280 

1880— Dominican Sisters of Hunt's Point 281 

1881— Franciscan Sisters for Colored Missions 284 

1882— Sisters of Notre Dame de Bon Secours 285 

1883- Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace 286 

1885- Sisters of the Most Holy Family of Nazareth. ... 287 

1889 — Sisters Adorers of the Most Precious Bood 291 

1890— Mission Helpers of the Sacred Heart 295 



366 CHRONOLOGICAL INDEX 

Year Page 
1891— Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and 

Negroes 298 

1891— Little Sisters of the Assumption 306 

1892— Helpers of the Holy Souls 306 

1892— Society of Our Lady of Retreat in the Cenacle 313 

1893— Servants of Mary 316 

1894— Sisters of the Divine Saviour 317 

1894— Religious Hospitaliers of St. Joseph 318 

1898— Servants of Relief for Incurable Cancer 319 

1899— Sisters of St. Joseph of LaGrange. 324 

1901— Polish Franciscan School Sisters 329 

1901- Sisters of St. Ursula of the B. V. M 330 

1902— Sisters of the Holy Ghost 331 

1906— French Benedictine Sisters 332 

1908— Sisters of St. Casimir 333 

1909— Sisters of the Atonement 333 

1910— Passionist Nuns 335 



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